Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems
by I.K.A. Valian
Summary: FE 1-10 Space AU. The galaxy is finally at peace, but an immortal Evil prepares for galactic genocide. Only the wielders of the Emblems stand a chance to stop him. Already, armies of Mecha are on the move. Follow the Call of the Emblems, brave heroes.
1. Out there in NoWhere

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen  
_

* * *

"_Where do you begin a story? To say a story has a beginning is to say it has an ending. This is a lie, because no story truly ends…_"

* * *

A man stood over her. She couldn't see him clearly, only his silhouette and the fiery orbs of his eyes. Behind him lay the smoldering ruins of a once great city, creatures of some kind running amok over the rubble. The man didn't move. Instead he stared at her with those eyes of fire, like he was focusing a laser on her soul. No matter how hard she tried, she could not look away. A pain grew in her head until she cried out. This only made the man grin, revealing dazzling white teeth.

"_You'll be handing that over to me now, I think,_" the man said, his voice sickeningly sweet. She knew that she didn't want to, that if this man got what she had, the universe would end. She'd die. But she couldn't stop herself from walking forward. "_That's right. Soon, it'll be all over. Just hand it over to me._"

She stretched her hand out, palm up, holding out a medallion of some sort that was covered in blue flames. This fire emblem wasn't burning her skin, instead it felt cool, like water running down a stream. Her arm and body trembled as she held the flaming emblem out toward the man. She stop shaking, not matter how much she tried. Just like she couldn't stop staring into the man's flaming eyes.

Just as the man reached out to grab the flaming medallion, a piercing screech penetrated the fear that had fogged her mind. The man grinned at her again, seemingly leering at her despite how he was currently dissolving into blackness. And then all that was left in her mind was the screeching.

Like reacting to boiling water being thrown onto her, she leaped out of her bed, stumbled over the reading chair sitting next to it, and fell ungracefully to the floor. A sharp pain blossomed in her shoulder from the impact causing her to hiss through her teeth. She twisted her face as she pushed herself back to her feet and smashed her fist into the off button on her alarm. The screeching noise fell silent and the ambient lighting from above the ceiling panel flickered to life, illuminating her room in a soft white glow that was just bright enough for her eyes to see in without blinding her.

"Ouch," she said as she felt around her pained shoulder. "Damn it! Why am I always hurting myself? And what's with that dream again?"

A panel on the wall with a small monitor embedded into it crackled for a moment. "_Master Lyndis_," it said, "_I'm sorry to wake you from your slumber at such a time, but there has been an anomaly that you programmed me to wake you for._"

"What's wrong, Bee?" she asked, trying to keep the stress from hurting herself and the annoyance of being woken out of her voice.

"_An anomaly has been detected. Please come to the bridge, Master Lyndis._"

"Ugh," she groaned. "Stupid AI. I knew that junk dealer in Bulgar was ripping me off."

"_Master Lyndis. There is an-_"

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses," Lyn grumbled, not bothering to keep her annoyance from creeping into her voice. "You know, nothing's happened for the last ten years. Why is it as soon as I get a software upgrade I'm suddenly getting so many more problems?"

"_Master Lyndis?_"

"What is it now?" she asked. She was already in the corridor leading from her quarters to the bridge. The path was well worn on the floor making any carpet not warn away a rarity. The walls were dingy, covered in a layer of dark dirt. She'd been meaning to clean it off, but never seemed to find the time. The ceiling was in no better condition, what with the lights half blown and enough dust to scare away any possible spiders.

She punched the door activation with a quick jab and strode onto the bridge. There were six stations, all of them empty. The seats for three of the stations were clearly in need of new cushions and the rest were in worse shape. She moved to the center of the bridge and slumped into the large and mostly uncomfortable captain's chair.

"_Initial passive scans have detected minimal heat emissions from the anomaly. Shall a hail be sent?_"

"Put it on the main viewer first."

The screen at the front of the room flickered once, and then an explosion of sparks erupted from the behind the screen. She jumped from her seat with a shout. She had been halfway back to sleep but now her heart was racing as she watched the fire suppression systems kick in and spray the flaming monitor with a hyper condensed stream of nitrogen. The sudden drop in temperature that accompanied the hyper rapid expansion of the nitrogen immediately reduced the temperature of the fire until it went out.

"_Fire extinguished. Main viewer offline. Notifying the repair personnel._"

"Ugh!" she moaned, pushing her face into her hands. "Great… Just wonderful."

"_Master Lyndis. Further scans of the anomaly have confirmed it to be an observer class shuttle craft. No response from foreign ship computer or pilot. It appears to be inactive._"

"At least the sensors are still working," she mumbled to herself. "Probably only a matter of time until they break too. Father, Mother, I know you said I could do this, but even Nandor couldn't keep a bucket of bolts like this together for much longer. I can barely feed myself, clothe myself, and keep a ship together. Some Sacean I turned out to be."

"_Master Lyndis._"

"Oh don't you try and cheer me up."

"_A life sign has been detected within the Observer Class shuttle._"

"Not like a stupid AI like you could have emotions anywa- Did you just say there was someone inside the shuttle?"

"_Affirmative. And for the record, I'm not stupid._"

A spark of something came to life within her when she heard what Bee said. Whether it was fear or excitement, she wasn't sure, but it was coursing through her veins like liquid fire. It made her heart pump faster her breathing pick up.

She quickly turned and left the bridge. As she walked down the corridor she picked up speed until she was nearly running. She slid to a stop next to a hatch built into the wall with the words "Port Side Dock" written in faded paint above it.

"Bee," she said, "bring the ship along side the shuttle and dock with it."

"_The shuttle computer is not responding to friendly communication. Now switching to aggressive communication. … … … Connection established. Bringing shuttle online._"

She moved to the side of the hatch and pushed several keys on a similar looking console to the one in her room. The screen flickered for a moment before showing a small arrow shaped craft slowly coming about and heading toward the camera. She pushed some more keys and the image switched to another camera, one with a wider angle and a good view of the docking port.

"_Warning, shuttle power dangerously low. Damage to ventricle engine node causing power loss. Life support failure imminent._"

"What?" She looked down and crossed her arms as her mind went into overdrive. "Those old shuttles are pretty sturdy. It would take something pretty strong to rupture an engine node… It's a wonder it hasn't exploded yet. How is anyone even alive in there at all? No, that's not important right now. I've got to get them out of there before they die. Computer, deactivate all systems on the shuttle and let inertia propel it forward. When the craft is close enough, spin it around using thrusters and use the docking clamps to make sure it doesn't bounce off our hull."

"_Those orders are not within safety parameters. Safety restrictions released. Executing orders._"

"Bee, do you have to mention every time I order you to do something dangerous that it's against your safety programming?"

"_Safety parameters are part of my core programming. It would be impossible to circumvent them._"

She fell silent as she went back to watching the screen. The black and white image flickered every now and then but it was clearly showing the slowly approaching shuttle. As it got closer, she could see why it was so close to death. The hull of the shuttle was covered in the distinctive pock marks of hyper laser fire and what looked like the score marks of a Vibro-Sword. Whatever the pilot had gotten into, it must have been some pretty heavy duty stuff.

Seconds before the shuttle was about to slam into the side of her ship where magnetic docking clams waited to catch it, a stray fear entered her mind. What if the being on board was a rabid dog or bad person? What if it were a serial killer or convict who barely escaped from a prison ship?

The loud thump of the shuttle smashing into hers and the sudden clunk of the docking clamps brought her out of her fear induced reverie. Swallowing loudly, she apprehensively watched the five lights on the door that indicated air seal quality until all of them went green, indicating a perfect seal.

With a loud hiss, the pneumatic hatch lock released and the round metal door swung inwards. On the other side was a small tube that stretched for about fifteen feet from the edge of her ship's inner hull to the outer hull. There another hatch waited, with five green lights lit, but was to remain sealed until she opened it herself.

"_Master Lyndis. Time to complete power loss in the shuttle is calculated to be 2 minutes._"

"What if it's a criminal or a pirate or something?"

"_One minute and fifty seconds._"

"Great… I have to decide whether to save this person or to let them die. Mother, Father, what would you do?" She clutched her hands together as she stared down the tube at the outer hatch.

"_One minute and thirty seconds. Life support failing._"

"Oh… Damn it! I have to save them! Bee, open the hatch!" She sprinted into the tube, her worries seemingly forgotten behind her. The hatch opened and she dashed into the small compartment of the shuttle. The air was musty and stale, but there was a distinct odor floating in the air that she wasn't quite familiar with.

"_Sixty seconds_," echoed the electronic voice of Bee down the tube.

"Damn… I have to find them quick," she said, panic induced adrenalin flooding her system. She looked left, scanning that side of the small cabin and studied the dead computer console over there. No, nothing living on that side. So she turned right and studied that side. Nope, just more lifeless computer consoles.

She moved to the front of the compartment and looked in the pilot's seat and found what she was looking for. Slumped in the seat was a man, dressed in fine clothing, with a breathing mask over his face. The long tube extending from the breathing mask plugged into the console in the front of the ship, which was also dead. Clearly, no air was getting to him and the seal on his nose and mouth was air tight.

"_Ten seconds._"

The voice of Bee sent her hand rocketing forward to pull the mask off the man's face. It released with a small hiss, indicating the loss of suction and the last of the air escaping from the now depleted life support system. Fortunately for the man, the cabin of the shuttle was quickly filling with oxygen rich air from her ship and he unconsciously showed this by suddenly gasping for a deep breath

"_All power in the shuttle has been spent, connection to shuttle computer lost._"

"Bee, I think the man here is alive, but he looks in bad shape and he's unconscious. I'm going to put him into the crew quarters until he wakes up. While we wait, I want you to scan this shuttle to see if there are any parts that can be salvaged or repaired to get it back into working order. What's wrong with this ship?"

"_Affirmative, Master Lyndis. Shall I activate the repair droids to assist in the scan?_"

"Yeah, might as well," she said. "Not like I ever need them otherwise… I was definitely screwed when the junk dealer said I'd need them." She pushed her hand underneath the man and tried to lift him, but no matter how much she grunted, groaned and strained to lift him, he wouldn't rise more than a couple of inches off the seat. "Holy Nondor! How much does this guy weigh?"

"_My scans indicate he weighs approximately 255 pounds or 115.67 kilograms._"

"That was a rhetorical question, Bee. You didn't need to answer that."

"_It is in my core programming protocols to answer all questions asked. Circumventing these protocols is impossible._"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, grunting as she tried to pull the guy up again. "I've been neglecting my strength training too much… Ugh. Bee, lower the artificial gravity to 25 percent." The strain on her muscles suddenly lessened so drastically that she nearly tossed the unconscious man into the ceiling of the shuttle. Once she had a grip on him in her arms, she turned and slowly made her way out of the shuttle.

Progress was slow as she moved out of the tube and into the corridor. She turned and went back toward the bridge, taking long steps and light using little push to move forward. Too strong a step and she'd jump into the ceiling and smash her head. But she eventually made it to the crew quarters, a room just down the corridor from her own. Once inside, she put the man down on one of the beds and pull the covers up over him.

"Okay, Bee, put the gravity back to normal." Immediately, the flighty almost weightlessness went back to the normal pull of 1 G. She shivered slightly from the sensation and looked at the man lying in the bed. There were other beds in the room, enough to house fourteen people, but since there wasn't anyone to sleep in them, they were all kept in tip top shape, sheets made and ready to be used.

"_Master Lyndis, it has been determined that the shuttle is repairable and can be scrapped for parts if need be. What are your orders?_"

"For now…" She turned away from the man and headed toward the door, not wanting to look at him anymore nor have the thoughts that doing so inspired. He was the first person she'd interacted with on her ship, her home, in ten years. Sure, she'd had dealings on the different planets in the region, but those trips didn't happen often. And she still couldn't be sure he'd be a good person. Better to play it safe for now.

She walked out of the door and turned to the control panel. After typing in some commands, the door slid shut and beeped twice. Then a dull thud reverberated through the metal walls of the corridor indicating that the heavy duty locks had engaged, sliding thick metal bars into the door's internal supports.

"For now, monitor the stranger's vital signs and notify me when he's woken up. I'm going to repair the bridge monitor and I want you to continue to repair the shuttle and keep an eye out. Move the ship out of this area of space, just in case whatever did that to his ship comes back looking to make sure they finished the job."

"_Affirmative, Master Lyndis._"

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**A/N: First off, I'd like to say I don't own any of the copyrighted property referenced and used in this fic. Those properties that I have not come up with belong to their respective owners.**

**Second, this is a belated birthday present for Regina Ricae Mortis (now called Lady Starwing). Thank you great whole planet sized bunches for being so patient.**

**Third, I've never seen anyone take Fire Emblem in quite this direction, let alone twist it with other game continuities. This is an experiment then, to see if it's possible. If anyone should know of a fic done in this vein, please let me know.**

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**Next Chapter: A strange man found unconscious. A lone girl living in the depths of space. What twist of fate is in store for this meeting?**

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**Constructive criticism and other comments are appreciated. Thank you for reading.**


	2. Training Day

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_The Hero Cycle starts with anger, which leads to vengeance, then to redemption, from there to peace, and back to anger. Woe is us, it never ends…_"

* * *

_Twenty Four Hours Later_

She thrust her right fist forward and followed it up by using the momentum it generated by swinging her body around to jab her left elbow. With another spin, this time counterclockwise, she swung her leg out and kicked in a half arc rising to about half her height. Then, while balancing on one foot, she started jabbing her foot forward faster and faster until it felt like her leg was going to fall off. Then she stopped kicking and brought her foot in close to her, keeping her leg bent and her body at an angle while balancing herself on one foot.

Sweat drenched her training jumpsuit, and her breathing was labored even in the cool air conditioned air. Her muscles burned and yet ached less with pain than a desire to strike. Her hand went to the katana sheathed at her side and in one fluid moment, she'd kicked her leg out, swung it backwards, and used that momentum to fully extract the curved sword from its sheath and stab it forward, slicing in an downward diagonal. The move used gravity's pull from below to enhance the blow.

Capitalizing on the momentum of slashing down, she used her body as a fulcrum to create enough torque to leap into mid air and dragged the sword around her body. Halfway through the turn, she grabbed onto the hilt with her other hand and brought the sword above her head as she reached the apex of her jump. On her way back down, she sliced downward again with an enraged shout and landed on both feet.

"_Master Lyndis, the man you have locked into the crew quarters has woken up. Shall I notify him of his situation?_"

Taking deep breaths, she stood tall and sheathed her sword. Unhooking the scabbard from her belt, she walked to the side of the training room and placed the sword back on the rack she'd taken it from. She wiped her forehead with the back of her padded arm and grinned, having not had a workout like that for some time.

"_Master Lyndis. The man you have locked in the-_"

"I heard you the first time, Bee," she said in annoyance. "I haven't made up my mind yet."

"_It is against Union Council regulations to keep a prisoner against his will._"

She shook her head. "He's not a prisoner…" Even to her, the words that left her mouth sounded hollow. "I just want to be sure he's not going to try and hurt me, that's all."

"_The man appears to be speaking a dialect of Lycia. The Ostian Region. Shall I translate what he is saying?_"

Curiosity got the better of her and she nodded, knowing that the AI had camera's everywhere and could recognize her movements. She walked to the side of the training room where a metal rack stood with several other training jumpsuits hung. Each one had a different number on it, from 5 through 50, representing the total weight sewn into the material. The jumpsuit she placed back on the rack had the number 10 on it.

"_Translation: _'Where am I? What happened to me? Why can't I remember what happened to me? It's all… a blank. I need to… to find out.' _His vital signs are all normal, however there is a slight protein and vitamin deficiency and a case of mild dehydration._"

"I'm going to get a food pack for him, then." She left the training room and headed toward the fore of the ship. After she grabbed a small bag of nutrient bars and a pouch of purified water from the cafeteria, she made her way through the ship's corridors to the door of the crew. On the other side of the door, she could hear noises as the man moved about.

Before she opened the door, she pressed a few of the buttons on the control console next to the door and the small screen attached to the console lit up with a view of the inside of the crew quarters. Inside she could see the man looking around the room with his head stuck inside of a vent. He seemed to quickly pull his head out, as if he'd suddenly decided that way wasn't tenable.

"If he's looking for a way out, then it's a good thing I'm being so cautious." She frowned as she continued to watch the man. He didn't look like someone who was going around, murdering people. He was dressed far too nicely for that. As her heart softened, she murmured, "Perhaps I'm being too hard on him. Besides, if he tries anything, I should be able to take care of it anyway. I'm a Sacean after all… even if my ship's falling to pieces, that doesn't mean I can't defend myself."

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she clenched her fist once and then lifted it to punch in the unlock code. The door groaned as the metal bars were retracted from the door and then the metal panel slid to the side. The man was standing in the middle of the room, his blue and green eyes wide with shock as he looked at her.

She studied him for a few quick moments. He was at least six feet tall, judging by how close his shoulders were to the top bunks of the beds, which were seven feet off the floor. His hair was blue, which wasn't so odd, but what was odd were the two twitching cat like ears sticking up out of the sides of his head. His skin was pale, not strange at all, until the tribal markings on his cheeks became visible from beneath his finely tailored cloak that was now no longer hiding a blue furred tail swishing around behind him.

"Byffi, gcmm," the strange looking cat man said, "gcabn C vy uvfy ni ume sio u koymncih?"

Unsure how to react, she remained where she was, standing in the doorway with the food pack in her left hand. Bee reacted first, breaking the silence by auto translating.

"_Translation: _Hello Miss, might I be able to ask you a question?"

The cat man looked up at the ceiling, frowning for a moment. Then a look of recognition lit his face and a grin grew to replace his frown. He furrowed his brow as he opened his mouth to speak again.

"I… not believe with eyes… locate spirit? You… can speak truth… where is?" he asked in a very broken Sacean. His accent was heavy with a tongue she couldn't recognize. Right away she knew he wasn't a native Elebian speaker, since she'd heard all the different Elebian Regions' accents when speaking Sacean when she'd stopped at ports for parts and supplies. He was also clearly not human, though the genuine curiosity and excitement at seeing her in his heterochromatic eyes showed he was more than capable of sentient reasoning.

What should she do first? Answer his question or shove him out an airlock. The longer she watched him, the more she realized he wasn't an immediate threat to her or her ship. If anything, he looked and acted just like a big playful kitty cat. It took her a moment to realize that she was still holding the food pack.

"Here," she said, tossing the food bars and drink at him. He caught the two items with eased grace, looking them over curiously. He brought the two items to his face and sniffed at them gingerly. "You must be hungry and thirsty after surviving what you did."

The cat man looked at her curiously. "Survive?"

"_Warning!_" Red lights started flashing overhead as a klaxon began sounding. This startled her and her guest. The cat man crouched down, holding the food and drink she'd given him close to his chest while growling at the ceiling with his tail flicking back and forth behind him. _ Hostile craft detected. Two unregistered Pirate Class Mechs incoming from the aft. Recommended action: Flee_."

She didn't even give the cat man a second glance as she turned and bolted down the hall way toward the bridge. As soon as she was in the captain's seat the display screen on the other side of the room fizzled to life. The image was hazy and blinking in a couple spots, indicative of the bad shape it was in and the repairs that could be made to it. Nevertheless, she could clearly make out the two glowing engines against the black background of space.

"No…" she groaned. "We can't outrun them to a military base or planet. They're in mechs and they look like they're outfitted for long range travel. Even if we were within range of a base, we'd never make it there before they could take out the engines."

She nearly jumped out of her seat when the cat man said from right beside her, "If no… honorable retreat. Honor bound battle!" She looked up at him and saw he was staring at the miserable display screen.

"I…" she paused as she looked back at the screen. He was right, she realized. But it wasn't something she was prepared to do quite yet. The only mech that was even working was her father's old mech. She was always having to repair it and some of the parts were sub-par to the damaged ones she removed. At the most, the machine would operate without exploding, that she could be sure of. Anything beyond that was out of her hands.

A hand laid itself on her shoulder. She looked first at the furred hand and then up the outstretched arm to the cat man, who was looking at her with his distinctly odd red and green eyes. Despite the initial distraction that his eyes held, there was a hard look of determination that focused her on the current situation.

"_Incoming transmission:_ 'Well look at what we got here. Where's your fleet little Sacean ship? Lost are we? Maybe we can give you some directions… in exchange for your lives.' _End transmission. Shall I prepare a response?_"

"If you… dishonorably weak. This one shall… honorable sacrifice," the cat man said. She shook her head though and stood up. She gave one last look at the display and momentarily let her eyes rest upon the two mechs, watching as one slowed to a stop while the other one sped in for an initial strike.

"No," she said and turned to head out of the bridge. "You stay here. Bee, prepare my father's mech for launch."

The cat man watched her leave, but remained where he was standing. Then he turned, his ears twitching as he watched the pirate close in on the display. For a second he looked like he was going to turn and follow, but with a resigned groan, he gripped his head and slumped into the captain's seat.

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**A/N: Chapter two complete. Looks like we have some light plot development. I wonder what's going on, a Laguz out here, in Sacea? **

**How interesting...**

**It's incredible the amount of work it takes to create an entire universe out of stuff that's already been created. Just because these characters and stories already have video games that we all love, doesn't mean that writing in them, AU or not, is easy. Crap loads of reading and back story writing is required for this story. I can't imagine how much work is required for some of the more intricate stories out there. Difficult is probably putting it ****too**** lightly. Unless of course you're just that good... in which case I envy you.  
**

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**Next Chapter: Lyn is pushed into a desperate fight to protect her home and guest. How will the battle turn and at what cost?**

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**Creative criticism and comments welcome. Thank you for reading.**


	3. Space Battle 1: Beginners Luck

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_Fighting in space can best be likened to trying to climb up a greased slide with your hands and feet tied together.  
You either make it or die in the most spectacular explosion you'll never see."_

* * *

She released the breath she was holding as the doors to the lift opened and revealed the hangar bay. The hangar occupied the only other deck of her ship and was situated directly below the main deck. It was basically just a square chamber large enough to hold around 4 mechs comfortably, though she'd seen her father stuff as many as twenty. There was no room to walk through the hanger back then.

After ten years of bartering for food, fuel, and replacement parts, she'd been forced to start scavenging her father's mech. As the mech was the only one left in the entire hanger, it stood out from the stark emptiness like an abrupt pillar covered in a sheet of cloth to keep the dust away. The outline of its flight form seemed to strain the fabric in the artificial gravity, making it appear as if it was fighting to be free of neglect and seclusion.

She slowed as she approached the craft. Aside from coming every few months to find something to trade away for her life on the ship, she rarely came down here at all. Now… she supposed this thing would be getting the attention it appeared to desire.

With a firm grasp and a swift tug, the sheet came flying off. The rippling of cloth and the whirl of the fabric dropped away to reveal the Swift Sword "_Myrmidon_" Class Fighting Unit. It was long and sleek, smaller than the average sword using mech in order to attain greater speed, and had two sets of back swept wings, that when transformed turned into the arms and legs of the more humanoid Fighter Mode of the mech.

As she settled into the cockpit, the on board computer began to boot up. She ignored it for the time being to focus instead on attaching the restraining straps she'd installed not too long after her parents were killed. She understood now that the inertial dampeners built into the mech would prevent her from being thrown about, but she could never get the image of being thrown out into space if she bumped into something.

Once she was done strapping in, the computer beeped at her and the canopy lowered. It hissed as it sealed shut, and the fans behind her head began whirring as the air recycling system kicked in. For a second or two, she was consumed by darkness until the monitors on the inside of the canopy lit up, revealing what was on the other via several linked screens that projected what several cameras on the outside saw.

She breathed deeply, never having gotten over the unsettling feeling of being trapped inside of a small space, and then pulled a pair of long cloth gloves out of a side compartment. While she was pulling the shoulder length gloves on, a crane overhead descended and grabbed the mech with magnetic claws. She jostled inside the cockpit as the crane lifted her and the mech up and started moving backwards.

Just as she finished pulling the second glove on the crane stopped moving backwards. With a suddenness that made her stomach drop, the crane let go and she dropped out of a hole in the hangar floor. She gasped and latched onto the throttle to her right and the control stick on her left. Her mind raced as she took in the sudden change of scenery from the much brighter hanger to dark space. The computer beeped at her, blinking as a holographic display came to light in front of her, showing a representation of the space immediately around her, with a symbol at the center of the holographic cube that represented her.

She took another long breathe to calm her nerves and adjusted herself in the seat, feeling out with the soles of her feet the foot pedals on the floor and re-grasping the throttle and control stick. For a second, thoughts bubbled to the surface of her mind, questioning what she was even doing in this situation. Could she really fly this thing? This wasn't just any simulation, it was real. Could she? Really?

"_Warning,_" announced Bee over a small speaker embedded into the front console. "_Pirate Mech closing to within five kilometers. Recommend: Flee._"

"I'm not running away, Bee," she snapped. Despite her annoyance at the AI, she was still grateful for the interruption of her thoughts. Shaking her head slightly to rid herself of the remnants of those thoughts, she pushed the throttle forward and took a moment to enjoy watching the belly of her ship disappeared from view as the mech's rocket accelerated her forward. "Give me their coordinates, Bee."

"_Affirmative. Enemy engaged. Painting target._"

The holographic display flashed and then a blinking red sphere appeared directly in front of her. Next to it was a small panel describing some basic characteristics of the craft, such a relative velocity and observed mass. These things were important in a space battle, since there was no gravity, mass and velocity become more important. Not that she'd ever paid attention to them, other than to give her an idea of how tough the opponent in the simulation would be.

"_Incoming transmission:_ 'Well look at this, Batta! One of them's got a ship and is coming out to play.'

'Heh, well, have fun. I'll stay back and watch from here.' _Transmission ended._"

"Bee," she said, her voice shaking. Her hands trembled as the two symbols on the holographic got closer and closer. "Bee, why can't I see him?"

"He running silent. Launch Torch Flare to gain sight." She blinked once before she realized that it was the cat man speaking to her over the communicator from her ship. She released the accelerator for a moment to tap a button on the console in front of her. The image of the cat man suddenly appeared on the canopy screen to her right. "Torch Flare will grant sight to those who see not," he said.

She scowled as she looked down at the console in front of her. Panic swelled up from inside of her and ultimately frustrated her. She could see the pirate was almost a kilometer away and she still couldn't see him, but instead of looking for him, she was looking for some kind of launcher button for a flare. She'd never seen anything or heard of anything like that before and she finally gave up searching when the holographic display began blinking red and beeping.

"I can't find it!" she shouted. The holographic display suddenly went solid red. "Damnit!" She pushed the throttle to its maximum and pushed forward on the control stick. Without missing a beat, she snapped her hand out and slapped the large red button in the center of the console in front of her.

"_Incoming transmission:_ 'Holy shi-It's a mech! This one's lively. Boss sure is nice letting me have all the fun."

The transformation took less than five seconds. The cockpit dropped forward, allowing her to stand directly on the pedals. The upper two wings split in half, becoming the arms, hands, and shoulder blades. The lower wings split and bent, becoming leg like and the main thruster assembly moved up a set of tracks to the lower back of the newly transformed mech.

"_Incoming transmission:_ 'Well well well… At least tell me who you are? I want to know who'd try and fight me in such a piece of junk.' _Shall I open a connection?_"

She took a moment to consider saying no, but the fact that he called her mech a piece of junk, despite that it was, just rubbed her the wrong way. "Yes, Bee. Also, I still can't see the bastard. How the hell am I supposed to fight this guy?"

"_Connection established._"

On the left side of the canopy, a small window appeared with the face of a man in it. It looked like a man, anyway, if one could look past the abhorrently thick scar running down the middle of his face. The scowl, since that was all he seemed to be capable of doing, grew thicker once the pirate had seen her in return.

"A girl! You're going to try and defeat me little girl in a 20 year old mech piece of trashy garbage? Hahahahahahah! Don't make me laugh! You'll make my scars hurt! Hahahahaha!"

She snarled and hit the comm. panel, shutting down the connection. Fear forgotten, her blood boiling, she pushed the right pedal down as far as it would go with her foot. With her arms out, she reached to her side and made a grasping motion, the arms of the mech doing the same, and in a single flourish pulled her hand back just as she'd done when drawing the katana earlier in training.

A brightly glowing beam of greenish hued energy erupted around the edges of the physical sword that was drawn by the mech. The sword itself was as long as the mech itself was in flight mode and despite the size, looked rather dainty and easily breakable in the her mech's hand. The blade, called a Vibration Sword or Vibro-Sword, glowed green from the vibrating particles it emitted that gave the weapon a sharper harder edge, despite the vacuum. These particles came from the reactor at the core of her mech, half of which the fuel display told her was now being shunted to the glowing sword.

The combined action of hitting the pedal on the floor and drawing the blade out and activating it made her mech burst forward and slash upward with the vibro-sword. But the action did nothing to the pirate because he wasn't there and only managed to cost her precious fuel.

"No! Bad… Gah!" The cat man suddenly broke down into the stuttering gibberish he was speaking when she first heard him talking. "_Translation: "_You idiot! Now he can see exactly where you are! Turn that damn blade off, now!"

"What?" she shouted, realization dawning on her. "Oh n-"

She was cut off when something smashed into the side of her mech. Sparks flew, warning sirens blared, and lights blinked haphazardly as she fought to keep control of her mech. The retro-rockets on all sides of her mech that controlled her position in space fired crazily as the autopilot attempted to correct, but only made things worse.

"Hehe, too bad girly," the pirate gloated. "Looks like you can't I win and you lose. Not like any other outcome was possible, what with the garbage heap you're flying around. Time to die."

A red blare of light filled her canopy as a vibro-axe, which operates similarly to a vibro-sword, came to life. The pirate mech, big hulking box like robot, was revealed in the red light as the pirate swung the vibro-axe over his mech's head.

"Bye bye," gloated the pirate just as she managed to calm her mech down into a defensive stance, with her vibro-sword held out in front of her. Without waiting a moment, the thrusters behind the vibro-axe wielding pirate came to life and propelled the pirate mech forward. The pirate lifted his axe up for a blow that she knew would surely kill her.

"No!" she shouted. "This can't be the end! I still haven't found that bastard who killed my parents yet!" Despite this, after looking down at the control console that had shifted as to be in front of her just like when she was sitting in flight mode, seeing the fuel gauge near empty deflated her bravado. Regaining her spatial balance had cost her too much fuel and now this battle looked over, and she wasn't coming out on top. "No," she groaned. "I can't have come this far only to die. What do I do?"

"De-activate sword, fly like free spirit over pirate position, and strike from shadows," the cat man said, his voice urgent. "Do it now!"

Seeing no other alternative, she moved her hand so that the green glowing sword in the mech's hand twisted to the right and de-activated. At the same time as that, she pressed another of the pedals on the floor and grunted as the straps bit into her side when her mech went sideways, the inertial dampeners sluggishly trying to catching up.

She watched, slightly amazed as the pirate sailed right passed her and slashed at the space she previously occupied. Then the rest of the cat man's orders registered in her mind and she realized that now she had the upper hand. She cried out as she stopped flying sideways and pushed her mech forward.

Her sword re-ignited for only a couple seconds but it was long enough for her to slash the boxy mech completely in half. The pirate's death scream followed by static filled her cockpit speakers and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her heart was racing and her hands were shaking, but she'd done it. She'd won her first real space battle.

Before she could pat herself on the back though, the fuel gauge blinked red, notifying her that it had started to draw from her reserve fuel tank. That tank she kept half empty as it was, so she'd need to hurry back to the ship if she wanted to keep alive.

"Bee, I'm low on fuel. I'm coming back in for a fill up."

"_Affirmative. Fueling droids prepared to receive. Shall-Warning! Warning! Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Pirate has boarded this vessel. All hands prepare to repel!_"

She swore under her breath as she pressed the transformation button again. As soon as the mech was back in flight mode, she pushed the throttle to the max. The inertia from accelerating so quickly made black spots appear over her vision, but she ignored them as she watched from this distance a second boxy pirate vessel disappearing into the hanger bay where she'd exited from.

* * *

**A/N: From here, I'm going to delve into more plot taking place elsewhere, so be prepared for this cliff hanger to hang over your heads for a couple chapters. Twists Ahoy!**

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**Next Chapter: The actors are assembling. Across the galaxy, people are led by fate toward a crossroads.**

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**Constructive criticism and comments welcome. Thanks for reading.  
**


	4. Conspiracy Abounds

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_Do your choices hold sway over your life? Does fate? Maybe both._"

* * *

**Somewhere in Elibean Space…**

The room was pitch black. Suddenly, a bright beam of light forming a cone blinked into existence. It illuminated a patch of the black, reflective flooring upon which a brown haired young man wearing a tan poncho stood. His head was cast down and his eyes were closed.

"Disciple Mark," a booming voice announced, echoing throughout the rest of the unseen chamber. The young man in the cone of light opened his eyes and looked up, silently waiting for the voice to continue. "You, among all your class, showed the most promise… and exhibit the most insolence. Your latest grievance has cost you dearly and as a result you face the greatest of punishments. How do you plead?"

Mark stood still, his amber eyes contemplative as he formed the words in his head. "Magistrate," he said after the pause. His tenor voice echoed throughout the chamber much like the Magistrates, but didn't carry as far. "I will accept my punishment. However, I believe I have the right to speak my peace before your judgment is handed down. May I do so?"

"You may."

"I came here with the knowledge that I was better at everything than everyone around me. I learned quickly that was not the case when I arrived. Insolent, as you say, I always put up a fight, attempting to hold my ground. Yet that was not an attempt to get free of this academy, but to learn by trial and error. And I paid very close attention.

"My latest actions, however, are not born of my inability to keep up. Nay, after countless hours of study and practice, I feel as if I've learned everything I can. But I desire for more. I _need _to know more. That is the source of my… _insolence_ now. That is all."

The room fell silent after Mark finished speaking. The few moments of silence stretched into minutes. Murmurs could be heard coming from someplace farther into the room that was not illuminated at all.

"We have decided on your punishment, Mark Alastrian," the Magistrate said. Mark arched an eyebrow. Not 'Disciple Mark', but his full name? He silently wondered what this meant. "You shall be stripped of your title within the Academy and be expelled. You shall never again find your way here. However…"

Mark stopped his move to leave. There was more? This was unexpected. He waited patiently for the Magistrate to speak.

A couple hours later, Mark stood in the passenger compartment of a commercial travel shuttle. The windows to the outside were whitened out to ensure he couldn't see where he was, just like it'd been on the way in. Back then this shuttle was full of excited students, each picked by mysterious head hunters roaming the galaxy searching for prospective students of the Tactical Academy of Silence.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure that was its real name. Not that it mattered in the end. He was still expelled and no longer was he their student. No, now… He looked down and read the piece of paper in his hands again, not entirely sure he'd ever absorb the words fully.

'_You are here by expelled from the Academy and promoted to Special Class Tactician. You can no longer credit anyone but yourself for your abilities, and as such have not a name behind your talent to vouch for you. You may not use our name, not that you could if you tried, to achieve any position or office in any of the Spaces._

_As Special Class Tactician, your destiny is your own, but your training is ours. You will always be one of us, even if you're no longer with us. You've been granted your freedom in exchange for your life long service. In pursuit of that which you professed, your mission is to use what you have learned as you see fit. Grow in power, wisdom, and courage until you're peerless. Only then can you honor yourself and the house that trained you._

_And don't die._'

"That's a hell of a way to graduate," Mark muttered as he let his hand drop back into his lap with the letter. He sat in his seat, not sure what to think or feel. After a while though, his mind settled on what happened at the trial.

The expulsion was expected, it was why he'd acted out. But the title came out of left field. He hadn't expected that and that's probably the one thing that irked him the most. The elders had seen right through his plan to force them to expel him and turned it around on him.

"I suppose that's why they're elders," he muttered to himself with a grimace. He knew now that they'd beaten him long before even calling him to trial. "I knew they were holding back. But now what am I supposed to do? I can't go back and ask them to teach me, so… I guess there's only the long way left now. Stupid elders."

"_We'll be arriving at Port Badon, perimeter Planet of the Lycian States,_" the captain announced over the intercom. "_There will likely be a twenty minute baggage inspection period and you'll need to go through customs so have your passport ready. Other than that, have a safe journey. I'm not sure what you did, kid, but you're the first one to be expelled that didn't end up in a body bag._ _Good luck._"

Mark arched his eyebrow. "A body bag? I wonder… Oh well," a grin suddenly split Mark's face. "I'll have the last laugh anyway when the elders find that little gift I left them. They won't be able to get rid of the smell for at least a couple years."

* * *

**Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space**

"Chief Wallace, Lieutenant Truestrike and Divo are here."

"_Thank you Victoria. Please send them in._"

A buxom woman in a slimming blue dress with long blond tresses that flowed over her shoulders like a yellow waterfall pressed down a key on the computer console in front of her and said, "Yes chief." After she released the button, she looked up from her computer console and nodded at the two men standing in front of her desk. The two nodded back, turned, and walked into the Chief of Police's office.

"Sir, you wanted to see us?"

The Chief, a balding man in his fifties with graying side burns, looked up at the red haired man who'd spoken. He nodded and motioned for the two men to sit down in the office chairs in front of his desk. "Yes, Kent, I wanted you and Sain specifically because I know I can trust you."

"Trust us?" Sain asked. He pushed his unruly light brown hair away from his eyes with a swipe of his hand and gave the chief a lopsided questioning look. "Whatever could that mean?"

"Be quiet and let me finish," the chief snapped. Sain grinned sheepishly in response to the stern look the chief and Kent were giving him. "Yes, despite you're inability to be serious Sain, you can be trusted. And Kent, you're as dutiful and loyal to the law as any officer could hope to be. That's why I've chosen you for this mission."

"A mission that sounds like it's not official police work," Kent observed.

"It is, actually," the chief said. "Though not by the usual measure nor standards. As you both know, Governor Hausen is dying. His brother and Vice-Governor, Ludgren, has been filling in for him daily basis, but it's only a matter of time until the old man kicks the bucket."

"Excuse me sir," Kent said, "but I fail to see how politics are any of our business. While it's horrible that the Governor is dying, there isn't anything _we_ can do about it. We're just police officers."

"What's with all the questions? It is our official duty to the state of Caelin to look to the safety of the elected governor and his immediate family," the mildly irritated chief said, "and I bet neither of you knew that Governor Hausen had a daughter." The surprised expressions on Kent and Sain's faces made the chief grin. "The truth is that his daughter was born of an illicit union. As a politician, Governor Hausen couldn't let that kind of information get out, it would ruin him. But that didn't stop him from being a father to the girl up until she ran away from home when she turned eighteen. He disowned her."

"And now we're going to have to go out and find this missing daughter because the governor is having a crisis of conscience on his deathbed," said Sain. He snorted derisively and shook his head. "Lovely. Pray tell, we have a direction to go in? A lead perhaps?"

"Actually," the chief said, "the Governor received a letter from his daughter, Madelyn, just recently." Chief Wallace picked up a stack of papers and held it out to Kent. He grabbed it and the chief continued, "She had apparently eloped with a Sacean Noble and went off to live with him. They had a daughter named after the Governor's late wife, Lyndis. The Governor said he would like to see his daughter and her family at least once before he goes, and because of the sensitivity of the issue, this must remain secret. Hence the Governor asked that I find two officers that could be trusted and send them to fetch his daughter and her family."

"I see," Kent said. His head was bowed as he looked over the papers. "I believe that we don't have a lot of time left to find her from the way you describe it, sir. Was there a specific place in the Sacean Expanse that the Governor's daughter said to find her?"

"Unfortunately," Chief Wallace said, "no. But she did say who she married and noble Saceans usually have large fleets with predetermined flight patterns across the Expanse. If you go to several of the key ports of call in the Expanse, you should be able to pick up the fleet's trail, or if you're extremely lucky, you'll run right into them. I listed the ports that you should look into first on one of the sheets I just gave you."

"Right then," Sain said as he pushed himself from the office chair. "Let's get going, partner. Can't keep the Governor waiting, can we?"

"One last thing," Chief Wallace said as Kent stood from his chair. "I don't have any proof or anything, but something isn't right about this situation. Don't tell anyone where you're going, if you have to say something, say it's a business trip to Ostia. I'll cover for you on this end. But keep this assignment on the down low."

The two gave the chief a nod to acknowledge what he said and left his office. As they passed Victoria's desk, Sain gave her a wink. Her response was a deadpan stare. Kent noticed the stare and without even looking over, smacked Sain upside the back of his head. He smiled as Sain started complaining while rubbing his head and Victoria giggled.

"Off on another adventure," Sain said once they reached their desks. "This one should be fun. I hear Ostia's a great place to be this time of year."

"You're going to Ostia?" asked someone down the other end of the room.

"How can Murkowski hear me talking from all the way over there?" Sain whispered as he waved a thumbs up at whoever had asked the question.

"Could it be that you're obnoxiously loud?" Kent asked. "Or that you announce everything so that anyone two blocks away can hear you with perfect clarity?"

Sain pouted as he stuffed several sheets of paper into his leather briefcase. "I'm not that loud. You're just jealous that I'm more handsome that you."

Kent rolled his eyes as he finished organizing the papers on his desk and stood up. He grimaced at the myriad of disorganized assignment forms, reports, magazines, newspapers, letters, and bills piled upon Sain's desk. He wished, not for the first time, that his neatness had rubbed off on his partner.

"All ready?" Sain asked, wrapping an arm over Kent's shoulder. Kent gave him a look which Sain interpreted as a positive response. Kent rolled his eyes when Sain's response was a stupid grin. How had this man ever made it into the police academy?

As they walked into the elevator which would automatically take them to street level, Sain asked, "Why do I feel like we're shortly going to be running for our lives?"

Kent sighed and finally shoved Sain off of him. "You heard the Chief. If he thinks something's not right, then there's probably something going on that we can't fully see until we're in the thick of it."

"Yay…" Sain's unenthusiastic response drew a snort out of Kent. "Well I for one hope the Chief just had too much of his wife's cooking last night. I want an easy mission for once so that I can have some time to myself. These latest cases have been killing me."

"You mean so you can get back to your floozies?"

"Hey," Sain reached out, grabbed Kent by the shoulder, and then started to shake his finger at him. "They're not _all _floozies. Just the ones I meet Monday through Sunday." Kent laughed but before he could respond, Sain continued. "Do you have that list the chief gave you? Where do we go first?"

Kent pulled the sheet of paper out of his brief case and looked over it again. "The first name on the list is Port Bulgar near the Sacean/Lycian Intersect."

"Bulgar… sounds like a good place to pick up a few barmaids."

Kent scowled. "Is that all you think of, you buffoon."

Sain grinned wolfishly and replied, "A man's got needs, you know?"

"I'll show you needs," Kent grumbled as the elevator finally reached the end of the 53 flight drop to ground level. "I've got some things to take care of before we go. I'll meet you at the spaceport."

Sain saluted and started walking. Kent shook his head and went the opposite way.

* * *

**A/N: And here we have the end of this little plot set up. Clearly, something is going down in the upper echelons of power in Caelin, but never fear, the peerless officers of the law Kent and Sain are on the case! With their efforts... well, with Kent's the day will be saved. Let's be honest, Sain would be a lousy cop without someone to hold his leash. I'm basing Sain off of a combo of his game version and Tony DiNozzo from NCIS. They're pretty similar, though DiNozzo is more cop than knight and that fits my story better than Sain's game persona. If you've not seen NCIS before, and I highly recommend it, new episodes can usually be seen on Tuesdays on CBS. Old Episodes are always being rerun somewhere. Plus, there's always the Internets!**

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**Next Chapter: More introductions. Lyndis' Legion is slowly being revealed!**

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**Thanks for reading. Constructive criticism and comments welcome.**


	5. On The Precipice of Adventure

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_The tapestry of Fate is not known until it is weaved. You'll never know where your fate will take you because the Threads of Fate and the hands of the weaver are invisible._"

* * *

**Planet Talos, Snoverial System, Illian Space**

A young girl of middle teenage looking years walked alone out of the hangar, despite the twenty or so other young girls of similar age also walking beside her. They more or less felt as alone as she did. Behind her the fond farewells of her family and friends yet to leave on their own pilgrimages still hung in the air.

It was a crisp, warm morning on the third planet of the Snoverial system. The blue sky was alive with ships approaching and leaving the Talos Starport and there were several flocks of the long winged Flitty Bird, known for their short chirpy calls, floating on thermal updrafts.

The girl stopped just in front of her craft, taking in the moment that was now and marveling at the beauty that was being entrusted to her. To any young Ilian, going on the pilgrimage was a great honor as well as the customary coming of age trial. The fact that her family was wealthy enough to afford her a brand new, state of the art, CL ZX-7 Pegasus Class Fighter meant she was one of the lucky few who could skip having to earn enough money to buy a fighter. Most of that wealth was in thanks to her sister, Farina, who's made a lot of money contracting with mercenaries during her own pilgrimage. A grimace crossed her face as she thought of her eldest sister. Farina had yet to retire from her mercenary group, something which had been entirely expected, but not as easily accepted. Fiora, her only other sister, rounding out the Three Thundra Girls, had returned and joined the military. She was here, to witness the Pigrimage take off with her parents.

"You're a beauty," she said, reaching up to run a hand along the belly of the fighter craft. The composite skin was smooth and cool to the touch, even with the grey and blue paint. The way that the colors were painted onto the body and single pair of swept back wings made it look like the craft gradually became darker from the white tipped nosecone to the near pitch black navy blue tail fins. "I think… I'll name you Huey," she said after a moment of thought. "My name is Florina Thundra. Let's have a good pilgrimage together and bring our family lots of honor, okay?"

She didn't receive an answer but smiled sweetly as if she had anyway. She continued to walk around the craft, inspecting it just as she'd been taught at school. Memories of her two older sisters berating her for improper care continually filtered through her head as she made sure that every last thing was in place. Once she was sure everything was set to go, she climbed up the short side ladder into the open cockpit.

Almost as soon as she sat down, the computer came to life and began booting up, listing pre-flight checklists and confirming them almost as fast. While the computer completed its automatic warm-up check, she strapped herself into the pilot's seat. She made sure to pull the straps tight after adjusting them, but making sure they were loose enough so that she could still reach the controls. She wasn't that long-limbed, so she needed to be able to lean forward to reach some of the console buttons.

Once she was finished settling in, she looked outside of the canopy and, spotting her parents and older sister Fiora, waved. They returned the wave, though her mother stopped waving soon after starting so she could bury her face into her father's shoulder. Her father continued waving and hugged her mother.

Taking a deep breath, she checked the fuel level and set the navigation computer to take her, like the rest of the young pilgrims, to Lycia. From there, she knew, she'd set out to look for work as a delivery-woman or something else safe to last her a year. Once done, she could come home and finish her schooling.

She pulled back on the control stick and gave a soft cry of surprise when the retro-rockets fired and she lifted slowly off the ground. After taking several moments to get used to the sensation of flying, she looked back out of the canopy and watched as the ground began to get farther and farther away. Her family went from dots to invisible as the entire continent came into view.

"_Hey! Can you hear me? Girl in the new Pegasus! Put up your Rad-Screen!_"

She jerked back into her seat from looking at the planet below and sputtered as she tried to find the correct control switch. Once she found and flipped the switch, the glass like canopy around her went opaque and image projections of what was beyond appeared. The autopilot computer automatically created a three dimensional pathway on the screens indicating her charted course.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Florina turned to the communication's console and punched up the signal that had warned her. The image of a blue haired young man appeared on her left. He smiled once the connection stabilized.

"_You were almost a goner there._"

"Oh. Um. Yes… Sorry. I," she said. The fact that it was a stranger _and_ a man brought out her shyness in the hardest way. "I just-"

"_Oh you don't need to apologize to me_," the man said with a soft chuckle. "_I'm not in your flotilla over there, but I saw you were the only one who'd not put up your Rad-Screen. It wasn't long ago that I went on my first space flight, so I know how… exhilarating it can be._"

"Oh… thank you."

The man looked at her skeptically before he shrugged. "_My name is Toby Niskavow. Us spacer's got to watch out for each other, right? Look me up if you're ever in Bern."_

"Y-yeah," she mumbled. She gave the man a weak nod and said, "Thank you," and then cut the connection. As soon as Toby's face disappeared, she slumped forward and groaned. "How am I ever going to succeed if I can't even talk to one man?"

Florina reached into the cockpit storage box and fished around until she pulled out a small dragon pendant. The dragon was made of a bluish purple metal with white gold "sparks" scattered across its hide. She clutched the pendant close to her chest and then put it back into the storage box.

* * *

**Somewhere on the Lycia-Sacea border…**

"Dan, I got the two on the right in my sights."

"_Copy Wil. I'm just about to drop down on these two over here on the left. Then we can race to the leader of these bandits. Winner buys._"

Wil shook his head, his brown hair falling back into his face from where he'd blown it seconds before. "Copy that," he said as he squeezed his trigger finger and felt his Archer shudder as the Helix Canon fired. The beam of white ionized plasma splashed onto the unsuspecting Brigand unit and caused the craft to implode.

The shot alerted the remaining four bandits that they weren't alone in the airspace over Teloom. They immediately broke apart and began to make a turn to head toward Wil, but not before he got off another shot from his Helix Canon and blew a second Brigand to pieces.

"_Nice shot buddy! Now it's my turn._"

Wil watched as a Fighter Class mech rocketed up from below and smashed into and through one of the Brigand's with its green Vibro-axe blazing. The Brigand exploded and while the remaining two bandits were swerving around, trying to regain a semblance of order, the Fighter emerged from the explosive ball of burning gasses and layed into the closest Brigand. The Brigand didn't have enough time to transform out of its flight mode before Dan's Vibro-axe smashed through the pilot's canopy.

That left just the leader of the bandits, which Wil was lining up a shot on as Dan was working on the last bandit. Dan used the now defunct Brigand as a platform to push off of toward the leader of the bandits. The bandit leader had transformed and brought his own red Vibro-axe to bear. The two traded blows before Dan's axe finally out maneuvered the bandit's and cut through the bottom half of the Brigand, lopping it completely off. Seconds later, another shot from the Helix Canon consumed the Brigand in a ball of plasma.

"Wow," Wil said. "That was pathetic. Even the last guys lasted longer than a minute."

"_Yeah… This is boring! I want a real battle where I can test my mettle… Argh… See you planet-side. You're buying._"

"As I remember it, you only got half his mech. I took out the pilot with the rest of it. Dan… Dan? Ugh." Wil shut down the link to Dan's Fighter and turned his mech toward Teloom. As he descended into the atmosphere he wondered how Dan was going to explain his way out of this one… and where they'd go from here.

They'd been picking off bandits as mercenary work along the border for a couple months now. At first it was an exciting experience as much as it was a learning experience. But after a while, the excitement of outwitting the vile but stupid bandits had worn off. It was too… easy.

After leaving the star port, Wil met up with Dan at a bar just down the road. The big man appeared to already be on his third glass of whiskey and had several more lined up next to a rather full looking bottle. Dan cracked a grin at him as he sat down next to him and downed one of the glasses sitting on the counter.

"Haaa!" Dan said. "Another day-hic- another grand success!"

"At least we're getting paid for the work," Wil said. "Better than we could say back home."

"Yeah…" Dan lifted another shot glass but stopped with it touching his lips. Then he put it down again and turned to Wil. "Hey buddy, listen. I've been thinking lately."

Wil rolled his eyes. "Last time you did that, Rebecca nearly gouged your eyes out with a spoon. I still have scars from when I stopped her."

"Hey man, I'm being serious here," Dan growled, clenching his fist. "We've been going around doing no name jobs for the past few months and I'm tired of it. I want bigger challenges than these measly pieces of crap bandits."

"You'd have better luck finding a pirate crew to hook up with," Wil said just before he tossed another shot down the hatch. "And you're no pirate Dan, so they'd probably hang ya and use you as an example."

"Grrr… You don't think I can do it? Is that it?" Dan smashed his fist down on the counter, making several of the remaining filled shot glasses fall over and spill their contents on the counter. The bottle jumped about an inch into the air before it settled back down onto the counter. "I'm leaving our group Wil. I'm heading out to make a name for myself and if that means being a pirate, then so be it. I don't care if I have to even change my identity to do it, I'll get it done, you'll see!"

With that said, Dan stood up and stalked, staggered, and walked out of the bar. Wil shook his head and poured himself another glass of whiskey, which quickly disappeared down his gullet. He ended up staying at the bar until the bottle was empty.

The next morning, Wil awoke to find a message waiting for him at the hotel desk. It was from Dan.

"I'm sorry for bursting out like that last night," Wil read, "But I really don't feel like we're getting anywhere as a group. Nothing against you, you're a great Archer pilot. But I think we both feel cooped up here in this backwater part of the galaxy. I'm going to find greener pastures. If I find anything, I'll send you a note to let you know where the grass is greener. Till then, tell my sister I love her. Dan."

Wil groaned and crumpled the note in one hand. "Damn, he was serious." He looked up and pulled apart the note to read again. Shaking his head, he tossed the note into the trash bin as he made his way back up to his room. "Now what do I do?"

He entered his room and fell backwards onto his bed. As he stared at the plastered ceiling he tried to figure out where to go next, but his mind was blank. Dan was the one with the nose to find trouble, or trouble found him, but it was usually he who found the work that went with it.

"I guess," he said to himself, "I'll just head to the next port over and see if there's any work. If not, I'll just move on. I should have enough money to hold me over for at least a year of travel."

As he set to packing and working out how to get to that next port of call, he idly wondered where Dan would end up. And why did Dan expect him to tell Rebecca that? It's not like he was heading back that way. He shrugged as he continued to pack his things.

* * *

**Planet Ostia, Capital System, Lycian Space**

It was raining dragon sized drops of water outside the windows of the President's Office. The President himself stood at the window looking out the water streaked panes of glass as if he were trying to decipher a meaning in their random patterns and swirls. Behind him stood two men, both in Ostian military regalia.

"Generals," the President said, his neatly combed, swept back blue hair shook as he turned away from the window to face the men. "I understand that our men in the international force occupying Daein Space have done excellent work and are respected by the locals, loved even. Which one of you is responsible for this feat?"

The sardonic tone of voice and the withering glare that the President used made it clear that he was being sarcastic when describing the conduct of the army in Daein. The truth was that Ostia was, like the rest of the international occupying force, almost universally despised. The Daein citizens felt, with good reason, abused by those occupying their space after the fall of their mad king.

"I have received intelligence, sir," said the general on the left, Frum, "that one of our regiments in the Occupying force has been infiltrated by Begnion spies. It's my belief that their influence is what has corrupted the image of our men and more than likely the rest of the force."

"So I am to believe that just a handful of spies have corrupted the entire occupying force of five hundred thousand. Do you take me to be an idiot, general?"

"It's because the troops are so far away from home," the other general, Alex, piped up suddenly, his voice hot. "It's difficult to maintain discipline so far away from home space. The men should be recalled. Besides, the Occupying Force has become bad publicity for Lycia. Our people don't want anything to do with it now that the war is over. Daein should be left to the Tellians to deal with."

"And have us reneg on a sworn allegiance signed by me, _personally, _and by every member of the congress. General, you may have your thumb up the political butt of Lycian politics, but you seem to have no idea what foreign policy means to the people of Lycia. We owe those Tellians as much as they owe us. Pulling out of the alliance means no one outside of Elebian space would buy our products. That might not be so bad if Bern hadn't decided to produce and buy only locally made things and Eturia has done the same. That leaves only Sacea and Illia, neither of which buy enough to sustain our economy at all."

There was a knock at the door and the head of a red headed old woman wearing square framed glasses popped in. She nodded at the President and he nodded back. Then she pulled out of the room and closed the door.

"Generals," the President said, "it appears our time is up. Please see yourselves out, I've an important call to make."

Both Generals saluted, turned on their heels, and walked from the room. Once the door clicked shut, the President picked up the black phone on his desk and waited for the other side to pick up.

"_Yes, Mr. President?_"

"Would you please send up one of your best agents, I have an urgent mission that needs taken care of with the utmost secrecy and care."

"_Right away, Mr. President._"

Almost as soon as the President put the phone back onto its receiver, the door opened and in walked a man of average height in a suit. His sandy blond hair framed a serious if otherwise carefree face. The President gestured for the man to sit.

"Mr. President, I understand you have need of the Information Bureau?"

"Yes," the President said. "What's your name, son?"

"My name is Mathew sir," the man said. "I'm the best that we've got, sir."

"Well you're mighty confident."

"I have to be, or else I might start second guessing myself, which would lead to a failure, which isn't acceptable."

"I see…" The President rested his chin on his chest for a few moments, tapping his fingers in front of him. "A while ago, I asked Gallian Ambassador Ranulf to look into some troubling readings coming from the dead center of the Sacean Expanse. He's since run into trouble and I've lost contact with him. The Gallian King has contacted us asking for his whereabouts. Apparently he's needed back home for one thing or another and have given Ambassador Ranulf until two weeks from now to contact the embassy to receive the message waiting for him. I want you to go find Ranulf and see if he's dead or just lost without power somewhere."

"That's quite a tall order, Mr. President," Mathew said. "But not impossible. I should be able to get it done in less than a week if favorable winds prevail."

"Very well," the President said. "You'll leave immediately. Shirley has the credentials you'll need to travel and where to start looking, so see her on the way out. Good luck."

Mathew stood and nodded at the President. "Thank you, Mr. President, but I don't believe in luck that I don't make myself. If that is all, I'll be on my way."

"That's all," the President said. He watched Mathew leave, waited several minutes, and then picked up the white phone on his desk and said, "Shirley, please contact Hector for me and tell him I should be able to make dinner tonight."

"_Sure thing, Uther._"

* * *

**A/N: Whoever said Uther was an ineffectual statesman was clearly not saying it in his presence. In this story, I'm not sure what I want for Uther. There's so many characters to choose from and it's quite a dangerous galaxy. And that's besides the bad guys out to get them. I guess that bridge will be crossed when I get to it.**

**On another note, a reviewer pointed out that Lyn's a bit grittier than in the game, and correctly chalked it up to the Sci-Fi setting. The truth is, I've applied the mythology of the games to a space age setting, so hopefully everything is like that, just a bit grittier, but in a good way. Hopefully the adventure is just as good as it was in the games.**

**I can't believe it took three chapters to get back to her, and at this point, I'm wondering how good of an idea it actually was.**

**What's you're opinion? Was putting all this in between to break up the action a good idea or a bad one?**

* * *

**Next chapter: The last few introductions of Lyndis' Legion, and then back to the conclusion of Lyn's first battle.**

* * *

**Please review, I love constructive criticism. Thanks reading.**


	6. And the Board is Set

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_It's not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is still living with yourself forever._"

* * *

**Planet Veran, Kathleet Colony System Phron, Lycian Space**

The Jiorg Spaceport was a busy place. Not surprising, considering it was the main spaceport for the capital city of the colony. This unfortunately meant that one sad, frazzled man was left to wait and search for another just inside the main lobby, in a crowd of thousands.

"This is ridiculous," the man said, pushing his deep purple bangs away from his eyes. "Even if I knew what she looked like… I hate this job."

He looked down at the printout of his assignment.

Being freelance hardly meant things were free. In fact, it was quite the opposite. That his training as a Mage Pilot required doing this kind of work, working for near pittance and dealing with… people, had nearly made him quit. The only reason he, Erk Flogherty, a self described hermit/isolationist, even continued was because his teacher was deceivingly good at weaving words.

Erk shook his head and glanced again at the printout. 'Lone Cleric of frail disposition and marvelous personality requires escort to Ostia. Reward of Five Thousand Credits upon arrival.' Of all the postings on the local 'Net, this one sounded the easiest. Taking into account his skill and the relative safety of travel to and from Ostian Space from within Lycia, this was clearly wasting his skills. All the better.

Besides, aside from finding the client, how hard could escorting a lone Cleric be?

* * *

**Imperium Outpost 4438, Imperium Space side of Imperium-Elibean Neutral Zone**

The hallways of the three deck space station were quiet. Normally, only the standard thirty man crew was stationed there. Yet, for the past three standard weeks, a sleek, orb shaped ship sent from Section 4, the Central Intelligence Corps, had been parked just outside the station. The two occupants of the ship had remained onboard the outpost, the elder monitoring communications being intercepted from Elibean space, while the younger kept all prying eyes away from their work.

The eldest agent, a tall woman wielding her long light-blue hair like a wall with which she isolated herself, currently aimed her piercing red eyes at the monitor screen inside of a recently emptied monitoring room. Behind her, the much younger agent stood, facing the other way, ensuring the evicted station crew didn't attempt to return. They were ordered to avoid unneeded deaths, so the normal procedure of dumping them out the air lock was out of the question. His short hair matched in color to the woman, as did his eyes, red as crimson. To any observer, the hair, eyes, and facial lines made them obvious siblings. But the black armored body suit the boy wore compared to the white jumpsuit clearly set them apart.

"Any time now, Ninian," the boy said. "The crew is getting antsy. Don't forget to erase the search algorithms. Quantum doesn't like it when no name military grunts learn our secrets."

"Nils," Ninian said, slowly letting her eyes take in the data scrolling across the screen, "I only agreed to take you on this trip because it was low priority and you promised, _promised_, to behave. I know you want to go blow them out the airlock, but that is _not _behaving."

Nils' mouth scrunched up as he repressed a sneer. "Yes, sis."

"Good boy," Ninian said. Without taking her eyes away from the screen, she reached back and patted her brother on the head, ruffling his hair. "Don't worry, we're almost done."

Nils grumbled something under his breath, his eyes never leaving the entrance. He was positive that the crew was on the other side, trying to eavesdrop on them. It was beyond irritating to withstand his agent training. No witnesses usually meant no witnesses, unless it meant witnesses who didn't witness what they thought they witnessed.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought the old man spouting poetry while he was being trained had lost touch with reality. How the hell does anyone witness something without witnessing it? No matter, he wasn't one to question orders as explicit as the ones given for this mission, especially when his sister was right behind him.

"And…. Done." Ninian stood, turned, and walked away from the console. She left the room, Nils on her heels, just moments before the door swiftly slid shut. Then a dull thump rippled through the station.

Nils cocked his head as he watched several of the stations crew open the door only to let billowing smoke fly into their faces. Shouts of fire and commands for order filled the air as the fire sirens started going off.

"I thought you were going to refrain from using explosives, Ninian?" Nils asked. He still had his arms crossed, his unhappiness with being left out of the fun written across his face like the child he was.

"Orders are orders," Ninian said with a shrug. "Erase all evidence of existence, without killing anyone."

The two stopped next to a round hatch. Ninian passed her hand over the security panel and watched lazily as the iris opened. Revealed was a stretched out umbilical tube connecting to their Sphere. The siblings ignored the red lights flashing and sirens blaring in the station as they left to board their ship. By the time the umbilical had retracted and the fire was under control, the Sphere was long gone.

"So, where are we headed?" Nils asked. He leaned back in the copilot's chair with his hands cupped behind his head. "Are we finally done with this border mission? These space rations are starting to give me indigestion."

Ninian shook her head and smiled as she focused on piloting the ship and handling the controls. "Nope, we're headed to Elibe." The space around the Sphere seemed to be a mass of writhing blues and greens, the telltale signs of warped space-time.

Nils yawned and nodded, his eyes halfway closed already, the low hum of the engines putting him to sleep. "Oh really, fun-WHAT?" Ninian stifled a small laugh as Nils bolted up right into a wide-eyed upright position. "We're heading into Human Space? For real! I thought this was just an information run! This is awesome!"

"Calm down Nils," Ninian said. She shot her brother a look but couldn't hide her smile. "This is a big opportunity for you. If you pull this mission off right, you'll probably get Rank."

Nils' wide grin threatened to split his face open. "I can't wait! I'm going to finish this mission so good they won't have… I just thought of something."

"Oh?"

"Yeah… who convinced Mother to let me do this, and Quantum to allow it?" Nils watched his sister closely. Though she didn't give anything away with her body language, he knew she was the only one who could have pulled this off, to his knowledge. Quantum, that self-righteous piece of analytical technology, was too uptight to allow it and Mother was too worried. That was unless someone convinced them to let him go for a price. "You vouched for me and you're my controller," he said, as the notion dawned on him, "aren't you?"

"Yes." Ninian remained silent for but a moment before she continued. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Nils frowned into his lap for a moment. A controller was responsible for making sure a potential agent knew what the assignment was, and if the worst came to pass, that they were silenced before they were a threat to the Imperium. Failure meant death. There was no practice run. This meant that he either succeeded in this mission, or his own sister would kill him, likely without any hesitation.

"No," he said, shaking his head. Now he had to succeed. He didn't want to die, but he really didn't want to force Ninian to go through something like that. "But why! Why would you do this to yourself? If it were Jahn, it'd be easier for him, but… Are you sure _you_ can do this?"

"Of course," Ninian said. She looked over at him and smiled warmly. "I know you Nils. You're more than capable of completing this mission. I have complete faith in your abilities."

Nils swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. Part of him was extremely happy. His sister was that confident in him. She believed in him. It wasn't like he didn't know that before, but it felt good to hear it. The other part of him was terrified. His sister had just smiled like when he'd come in the door after playing in the mud when he was very young. The fact that it was his life, or death, was perfectly clear by this point.

It also clarified some things to him. Now that he knew what the next mission was, his test mission, he sat in his seat contemplating his thus far short life. Illuminated was how his sister had risen through the ranks so quickly and where the 'Ice Bitch' nickname came from. If she could kill her own brother without shedding a tear, then what couldn't she do?

* * *

**Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space**

Far from the bustling center of the Caelin Stock Market or the other centers of regional power, on the perimeter of the city, stood a relatively old mansion. A high fence of bars and wire surrounded the building and its grounds, with teams of men patrolling the perimeter. Inside the house, on the second floor, in the master bedroom stood one Ludgren Blitzkrieger.

He stared out the tall window of the mansion, watching the night pass by, as if he were searching for something out there. He received no answer but his own reflection and the occasional lightning bug blinking at him. It was quite peaceful, at least on the surface.

Behind Ludgren lay his brother, Hausen Blitzkrieger. He lay on the bed, his face gaunt and boney, like the life had been sapped from his body. This was to be expected, but Ludgren put on a face to make it look like he was also suffering, if only for his brother's sake.

"Has there been any news," rasped Hausen. "Any… news from the detectives."

"No, dear brother," Ludgren said, his voice dripping with false concern. "Please, be done with this foolish desire. Rest now. You know the doctor said you might recover now that the fever has passed."

In truth the Governor's body had grown used to the original poison and was metabolizing it too fast. A new serum had been devised though, one with different symptoms, but the same result. Ludgren smiled inwardly as he contemplated his future.

"No," Hausen said, more forcefully than he appeared capable of. "I must know, before I die, what happened to my daughter. I will not die, until she and her family is found."

Ludgren turned away to hide his grimace. _'Why won't he just DIE?'_

There was a knock at the door. Ludgren put on a smile and went to the door. The servant handed him a note, bowed, and left. Closing the door, Ludgren opened the note and walked slowly back toward his brother.

"What does it say, Ludgren?"

"Nothing important," Ludgren said, making sure to keep the note away from Hausen's view. "Just a notice that the legislature is trying to pass that silly tax bill again. It's likely to fail, once more, pay it no mind."

"As long as that's all…" Hausen said. His voice, already soft, trailed off as he appeared to doze off.

"Sleep well, brother," Ludgren said, a cruel smile appearing on his face. Silently, he crossed the room, quietly opened the door, and slipped from the room. Once in the hall way, Ludgren made his way down to the main floor and stepped into his office.

Once inside, he made sure to lock the door and activate a small round device that looked like a large stone paperweight with a push of his thumb onto its top. The stone paper weight hummed for a few seconds in a frequency that was almost too low to hear, before it beeped once.

Two beeps meant the room was insecure. One meant he was free from prying eyes. There's never been more than one beep since he'd come into possession of this device.

Pulling out the note again, Ludgren opened the folded piece of paper and read it aloud. "Master pleased with your work. Wishes to make another deal. You're wealth will increase one hundred fold. Speak: Enus Eoah Teius Finum"

As soon as he'd finished speaking the fourth word, there was a loud snapping noise and the paper burst to flames in his hands. The first time this happened, he'd dropped the paper in fright. The flames reached out and consumed him and he fell to the floor, moaning in despair as he thought he was about to die.

This time, he let the flames consume him and when his vision cleared, he stood in darkness. Just as before, he'd been transported to someplace else. He had tried to find out where, but all his inquiries had returned was superstitious nonsense.

"I take it, that's a yes, my lord Ludgren?" asked a deep voice, which to his ears sounded strained. As if the speaker wasn't fully in control of his own speaking.

"The new poison is working better than expected," Ludgren said. He looked around as he tried to get his bearings, but nothing was visible. "I know you're a man of your word."

"Indeed," the voice said. It almost sounded pleased. "I wish to start a rebellion in Lycia. The end result will be a single Kingdom, like Bern was before the popular uprising a hundred years ago."

"History said the old King of Bern was the richest man in the galaxy," Ludgren said, his voice breaking as he realized how rich he could be if he allied again with this stranger. "But why me? Surely, there are others who would be more capable of assisting in this… endeavor? Not that I'm saying no. I do wish to participate."

"Ah, ever the politician. Take the deal or… well, let's just say you'll die before your brother does if you say no."

Ludgren swallowed as a lump formed in his throat. "O-of course, I say y-yes! Yes!"

"Good man. Master will be pleased. Let me tell you your assignments then."

Ludgren nodded and listened as the man began speaking of conspiracies to start, rumors to spread, plans to start building, and other things this 'master' wanted done. Internally, his mind was reeling, seething. Did they really think they could use him? As soon as he got what he wanted from these bastards, he'd cut them off. Or better yet, he'd hold them hostage and tell them what to do. No one used Ludgren Blitzkrieger and got away with it.

* * *

**Deep Space, Sacean Expanse**

Batta the Beast grinned, a foul sight if ever there was one, as he stepped from the cockpit of his mech. After taking a look around the hangar of the little Sacean ship, he found himself standing over the power relay that allowed the hangar bay door to open and close. With a snort, he activated his vibro-axe and dropped it onto the cables, severing them in a shower of sparks.

"Oh my," Batta said with faux concern, "look at what I have done. How clumsy of me?" The beastly pirate snorted and pulled his axe from the dent in the floor. "Next, I'll just go to the bridge and kill anyone in my way. I bet the Taliver or Ganelon Gang would love to get their hands on this ship. Hehehe, pay day for Batta the Beast."

On his way to the bridge, Batta jumped out into hallways, leaped into unoccupied rooms, and destroyed doorways into empty closets. Nothing and no one appeared before him. When he got to the bridge, and also found it empty, an unsettling hunger filled his gut.

"Ahhhh!" Batta shouted. He swung his axe and totally demolished the defensless seat in front of him. "Where is everyone! Where's the mayhem, the pillaging? Don't tell me that one little girl is the only one living on this hulking piece of space junk?"

"_You are trespassing, pirate. Leave now. Security teams have been notified. This is your last warning._"

Batta looked up at the speaker embedded in the ceiling and sneered. "An AI, huh? We'll just see about that." He de-activated his axe and moved over to a console and pulled a small cube with glowing red lights forming the pattern of a skull and cross on it. After placing the cube on the console, he watched as the red light filtered down into the blue backlit console, turning the blue to red as the cube began executing an auto-hack program. "Let's see how you like that, you snarky little artificial bitch," Batta said and grinned.

"_Warning! Hacking cube detected. Hacking program attempting to penetrate system. Firewalls being breached. Electronic Engineers, please attend._"

A sudden noise from in the hall way caught Batta's attention. He whirled about and ran out, gleefully activating his axe and laughing as he went. Once in the hall, he barely saw the tail end of a furry tail disappearing down the hallway into a hatch.

"So there is someone in here!" Batta crowed. "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Hahahaha!" Batta's laugh grew demented as he moved his large bulk down the hallway. Left forgotton, the red cube continued its attack on the now completely red console. Slowly but surely, the red over took blue.

* * *

**Outside the ship…**

"Work," Lyn muttered. She reached out with her hand and grabbed at thin air, but her attention was beyond the canopy where she was watching the mech hand attempting to grab a small lever on the side of the hull. "Work, please work!"

Unfortunately, the fingers of the mech's hand were too large. The forefinger and thumb couldn't get a hold of the lever, no matter how hard they tried. To add insult to injury, the power decided to run out at that very moment, shutting down the mech.

"No! Damnit! Crap!" Lyn took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay. This is bad. But not as bad as it could be. I'm still alive. And that means I can still do things. Okay. I need to get my helmet on. Yeah… and stop talking to myself. That too."

Lyn took another long breath and reached for the helmet in a box to the left of her seat and at the same time activated her EV Suit's re-breather system. The pockets of air sewed into the different areas of her suit began their job of releasing oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide from inside the suit. She'd have about ten minutes before she would need to stop moving so the system could recycle enough oxygen for her to act again.

The suit was good for short term repairs on the ship's hull, but beyond that, it was in the hands of a higher power. It used to have a larger tank that went with the get up, but she traded that for a week's worth of food several years ago. In retrospect, that wasn't the greatest idea.

Then again, she didn't ever expect to be in a situation like this. As she attached the helmet and made sure the seals were air tight, she wondered if she had been deluding herself thinking she'd never ever have to fight in space. It certainly seemed like a foolish notion now.

Everything was in place. All she needed to do was hit the eject button and she'd be vaulted toward the hull of her home. She placed her hand over the eject button and paused. Her heart was racing and she could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, squeezed them shut, and let all the emotions surrounding her come into their full. Her head swayed for but a moment before she pushed them all down again with a firm force of her willpower.

Her nerves calmed, Lyn opened her eyes and smashed her hand onto the button. The ejection process was quick, there was a small pop and a loud hiss that quickly vanished into the vacuum of space. Then she was free flying through weightless nothingness.

Just before she smashed into the hull, she kicked her foot forward. The gesture added a spin to her course for half a second. Then her feet clamped onto the metal surface of the hull and stopped her forward motion with a soft jerk.

Lyn let out a strained breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. "That was… easier than I thought it would be. First time for everything, I guess. Now, to the hatch…" She lifted her left foot from the hull and used her right as leverage to push her body forward. Then she placed her left foot back down onto the hull. When that foot was attached to the hull again, she did the same with her right foot.

"Right… Left… Right… Left…" she said with each step. "Right… Le-ugh. Talking… to myself… again. I can't believe I miss talking to that stupid computer." Lyn shook her head and continued her slow, but steady march. Around her, the vastness of space was alive with starlight, a view enviable by anyone who was stuck planetside. It did little to suppress her growing anxiety, which was making her gut get all wobbly as she walked. "I have to hurry," she said, "I can't… stop."

* * *

**Inside the ship…**

"You stupid animal!" Batta screamed at the door. "Get out here now! I promise… I won't hurt you. Much."

"You've convinced me," came a voice muffled voice from the other side. Batta frowned as he waited for the door to open. Instead, the voice said, "You've convinced me you're as stupid as you are ugly. Honestly, asking a poor little kitty like me to open a door to a brute like you. Do you get laughed at by all your ugly pirate buddies when you're together for how stupid you are? I know I'd laugh. Hahahaha, see, I'm laughing too."

A vein had, by this time, popped out from Batta's forehead as a snarl continued to make his face even uglier than it had been before. He activated his axe and raised it to slash at the door, but just as the blade was about to hit, the door suddenly slid open. Momentum carried him forward and into the room several feet.

"And now you've won the Idiot of the Week Award," the cat man said. "Congratulations! Bu-bye!" With that, he was out the door. Batta roared as the turned around and chased after him.

The chase continued for several minutes, the cat man always one hallway ahead. Yet it always seemed that fuzzy little tail was there to show him the way. After a while, this got old, and Batta got bored. But he wasn't going to give up. He knew what to do with rats you couldn't catch. Better to make them come to him instead.

"Fine!" Batta shouted down the hallway. "I'll kill you later. I got better things to do." He turned and went back down the way he'd come. Randomly choosing a door, he opened it and slipped in quickly. Then he closed the door and waited. Pushing his head against the door, he listened for sounds outside.

Several minutes passed. He was beginning to think that the cat man wasn't going to show. Then he heard it, the soft padding sounds of the blasted beastman. Batta grinned, revealing his nasty rotten teeth, as he waited for the foot steps to stop. That grin only grew when they stopped directly in front of the door he'd hidden in.

Taking a quick silent step backwards, Batta gathered up his energy and smashed open the door with a single slash of his axe. The momentum of his attack blasted the fragments of the door into the hallway, and the cat man. The door remnants and the cat man crashed into the opposite wall.

"Hehehe," chuckled Batta. "Look at what the cat dragged in." The cat man groaned as Batta bashed aside the remnants of the door with his axe. With one hand, Batta grabbed the cat man and lifted him into the air, choking him. The feeling of the soft flesh squishing in his large hand sent a wave of ecstasy.

The sudden loss of air and the increasing pressure on his throat woke the cat man from his daze. He struggled to pull Batta's oversized fist off his throat as he choked on his own tongue. Batta sneered.

"Pathetic animal," he snarled. "Did you really think you could take on Batta the Beast? I'll show you a real fight." Batta whipped his arm around and tossed the cat man into the room that he'd been hiding in. There was a loud crash as the cat man hit the other side of the room.

The lights flickered to life when Batta hit the activation switch next to the door, revealing a room full of swords and training dummies. The cat man had hit a rack full of katanas and caused them all to fall to the floor when he hit it. Breathing raggedly, the cat man had already pushed himself to his feet and a naked katana was in his hands.

"Oh ho ho!" Batta chortled. "Thinking about fighting back are you, pathetic little kitty? Well then," Batta raised his axe in front of him, "let's do this."

The two dashed at each other, the cat man with surprising speed. In the seconds it took for the two to attack, the Batta's axe cleared the distance and smashed into the blade of the katana. When the vibro-axe knocked the blade from the cat man's hands, Batta grinned.

"So much for that," Batta snorted. The cat man, knocked back from the collision of attacks, growled. "Is da wittle kitty mad?" Batta said, taunting the cat man. The cat man's eyes narrowed and he fell onto all fours. "Oh I don't think so," Batta said. He rushed forward and smacked the cat man between the eyes with the blunt side of his vibro-axe. The cat man slumped the rest of the way to the floor.

"Hehehe," chuckled Batta, "You'll fetch a good price, alive or dead, on the black market. Don't know what you're doing way out here, but who cares."

Batta de-activated his axe and lifted the cat man onto his shoulder. Then he turned and was about to leave when he saw someone standing in the doorway. It took him a moment to recognize it as the girl from the fighter. She was still dressed in her flight suit, so she must have rushed straight here.

Lyn was breathing hard as she gripped the sword that she'd found lying on the floor. If she had to guess, it looked like the cat man had tried to defend himself, to no avail. But it looked like he was still alive, so not everything was lost.

"Let him go, monster," Lyn snarled. Her eyes narrowed when the hulking pirate grinned.

"What luck," chuckled Batta. "I'll get loads of creds for you and this beastman. I'm just full of luck today."

"Rot in hell," Lyn growled. "Drop him or I'll drop you."

"Not with that sword," Batta said confidently. "My axe took a bite out of it when this fool tried to stop a Vibro-axe with it. Idiot."

Lyn shifted her stance and lifted the katana into an offensive stance from her former neutral stance. "I'll take that as a no, then," she said. She sprinted forward, bringing the sword up for a high slash.

Batta grinned and activated his axe. The green hue of the vibrating molecules that formed the blade hummed to life as Lyn approached. At the same moment, the cat man was dumped onto the floor.

Batta swung at Lyn first, missing her as she ducked under the green blade. Lyn took the opening and got in close to Batta. She brought the katana down in a horizontal slash before she kept going, ducking into a roll using the last of her momentum.

She popped up again several feet away and spun around just in time to hop to the side as Batta brought his axe down. She'd gotten him though, clearly shown by the long red gash on his front, but it appeared to have only served to anger him. The fact that he still wasn't dead yet inflamed her ire.

"I've had enough of this shit! Just DIE!" Batta screamed, spinning around with his axe, attempting to just lop Lyn's head off. Lyn snarled and dropped into a backwards roll. Instead of popping back up, she sprang forward off of her heels when they hit the floor. This extra burst of speed proved too much for Batta, who was still in the midst of his last attack. Unable to stop Lyn, she brought her katana down on his unprotected arm.

The force of the attack was so savage that the blade, though it snapped at the gouged out point, it took his entire arm off just under his elbow. Batta cried out in pain and grabbed his arm with his only remaining hand. Lyn didn't waste a moment though, and spun around, swinging horizontally. Batta's cry turned to a wet gurgle as his throat was ripped open and a fountain of blood shot into the air.

"But… I can't…" Batta rasped, as he fell back like a slab of stone, "Gahhh…." And then the great beast of a man's chest stopped rising and Lyn knew he was dead and her ordeal was over. Gasping for breath, she dropped her broken blade and stared down at the man who'd died in front of her.

"I can't… believe I did… that." It took several minutes for her to realize she'd fallen to her knees. Everything was spinning. As darkness swallowed her vision, her body slumped to the side.

* * *

**Some time later…**

Waking to find herself in her bed when all she remembered was blood spurting like an over pressurized fountain from a soon to be dead man's neck, was the last thing Lyn expected. She immediately stood and, just as quickly fell back onto her bed as her head swam. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to kill one, and then the next, and then the next until her family's blood debt had been paid. Why was she reacting this way to just killing one. The pirate scum deserved no better.

Lifting a hand to her head and felt something sticky and wet. Slowly getting to her feet, she moved to her mirror and tapped the button next to it to activate the backlighting. She nearly gasped when she saw herself. She looked like a demon straight out of hell, covered in wet blood, her hair thick with the substance. Her image brought unwanted memories to her mind. She looked like one of _them!_ The stench of the blood made her vision blur.

And then _he_ was standing behind her, covered in blood just like she remembered him. The blood of her parents. She stood there, frozen in terror, as the ugly face of the pirate cracked open and grinned.

"Now you're just like me," the man murmured, amusement hidden in the deep trembling notes of his bass voice.

"No!" she cried. Still, she was unable move. It was like some foreign power held her feet to the ground. "Noooo!"

"Yes!" the pirate boomed. "Just like me! A murdererrrrr!"

Lyn looked from the man's sly little grin and back at herself in the mirror. Slowly, her face grew covered in more and more blood, as if she were sweating the damning evidence of her foul deed. And then, her reflection's expression changed. She was looking at herself smiling, enjoying the blood flowing over her, as the pirate behind her laughed harder and harder.

"No!" she cried. "No! I'm not a murderer!" The laughter got louder and louder, echoing in her ears as the mirror got larger, and her grinning, bloody face with it. "Nooooooooooooooo!"

Lyn's eyes popped open and she snapped awake and out of her bed faster than she ever remembered having done. Her heart was racing as she tried to catch her breath. Her mind wouldn't stop running laps as it tried to come to grips with where it was now.

Was that a dream? Did it really happen? Was any of it real? She reached up to her head, but gone was the sticky remnants of the man she'd killed in the training room. And there wasn't anyone else in here with her.

"That was… it is… I'm… okay. Yeah." Lyn nodded to herself. Moving to the mirror she reached to turn the back light on, but paused for a moment. Doubts began to filter into the back of her mind as she remembered herself smiling, reveling in the bloodshed. She shook her head and turned the light on.

The image revealed was her own face, clean, for the most part, but it wasn't smiling at all, much to her relief. There was some grease on her cheek, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. Her fears abated, she turned the back-light off and made her way out of her room.

What she found outside was a mess. There were gouges everywhere along the hallways and several doors were lying in pieces inside the rooms they used to guard. As she made her way to the bridge, she passed by _that_ room.

The training room was surprisingly empty, aside from the large red stain on the far side. Relief flooded her system when she realized that she didn't have to see his body. The fact that the first thing she felt was relief, or any apprehension at all, was confusing.

"Why am I so riled up about this?" she asked herself. "All of this because of some silly dream? Besides, I've known this day would come eventually." She looked down at her hands and pursed her lips. "Though… I suppose no amount of training can prepare you for what actually happens. But it's too late to worry about this now. I've got to get to the bridge."

Along the way to the bridge, she found more gouges in the walls and floors. One wall even had a hole large enough for her to fit her head through. Since this was right next to the bridge, she was wondering what could have caused that kind of damage as she walked in to find the cat man attempting to type something at one of the control consoles.

"Hey!" she shouted, going on the defensive. This was her home, after all. Letting some stranger access her home was like asking them to come in so she could expose herself to them. "Get away from there!" She crossed the bridge as quick as a flash and was immediately attempting to stop her guest from doing whatever it was he was doing.

"Gh… Halt!" He shouted in his broken Sacean. "Com… broken. Pirate dishonorable backstab!"

"What?" she asked. "What about the pirates? They're all dead! Now get up already!"

"No!" the he shouted. He stopped fighting her and pointed at the console's screen. "Hail! Hacking pirate backstab!"

Lyn froze at the word 'hacking'. She turned to the screen and read what amounted to a error notice that the ship's computer was now dead. Immediately, she let go of the cat man and let her shoulder's slump.

"Great," she said, "just great. Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no computer and no mechs to defend ourselves. We're probably lucky to even have life support and lights." The lights took that opportune moment to dim until they were gone, leaving the computer console's the only source of illumination.

Nodding, Lyn slumped into the captain's chair and groaned into her hands. The cat man looked back and forth between the console and the Sacean girl, then he stood. After moving to the other side of the bridge, he pointed at a large stack of data processing nodes piled up in the corner and pointed at it.

"AI heart?" he asked. "If no honorable… uh, guiding light, then use torch?"

Lyn looked up from her lap at the cat man, her eyes half lidded as she looked at him. "I'm sorry, but I haven't a clue how to help you. I'm a Sacean on a ship, her own ship, and I can't even fix it anymore. Saceans are supposed to be the best Techs in the galaxy, but no, not me, I'm just one screw up after another." Lyn sighed in defeat and put her head back into her hands. "I can't even kill a pirate without turning into a wobbly mess. I'm a disgrace to my parents, my tribe, and my people."

A hand fell onto her shoulder. It was warm, and firm. She looked up and into the eyes of the cat man.

"All life is sacred," he said, "but to protect the sheep, buzzards… uh… birds… ugh… Wolves! Wolves must be slain. Take heart, in the honorable protection from wolves." The cat man smiled, apparently happy with his increasing vocabulary and in an attempt to encourage her. "Also," he added, "Persevere and live free." He thought for a moment more and then nodded, satisfied with what he'd said.

Lyn sighed again and nodded. "Thanks. I think."

"Hail!" The cat man shouted. "Com broken. Apply healing herbs, yes?"

She nodded. "Yes, apply healing herbs. I suppose I can't just give up. If I'm going to get strong enough to avenge my tribe, my parents, then I'm going to have to get stronger. I can't do that sitting here, in the dark."

Though the words sounded right to her ear, they felt hollow even as she said them. Despite that, she stood and forced her legs to hold her up. Once on her feet, she moved to sit in front of the computer console and studied the display screen.

After closing the notification window that an error had occurred, it continued to pop back up, repeating the message. Notable was that the response time for the pop up window was less than a second, since it came back almost immediately. This, she concluded, meant one of two things. The message was a ruse, meant to cause discord in the crew too blinded by panic to dig any deeper. Or, the pirate had successfully locked the system down so nothing was going to happen no matter what, in which case panic was well within her rights.

"The only way to know for sure is a hard reset," she said, thinking aloud. "If it's an executable, then when Bee reboots, it will run a scan and delete any infected or corrupted files, and everything will be restored. If not… then we better hope some miracle occurs and a transport flies by us."

"Faith in the Great One," the cat man said, "you succeed with honor."

Picking up her step as she moved quickly out of the bridge. "It better work," she muttered, "his Sacean is getting worse."

"With honor!" the cat man shouted again.

* * *

**A/N: The ending of this chapter was completely different three times. I wanted Lyn to have issues with actually killing, since this is her first time, because she's not some homicidal maniac on a revenge bender after the deaths of her clan. That was ten years previous and while the pain is constant, in some ways, she's coped with the loss. So I guess my imagination decided to experiment with different ways of having Lyn deal with this first kill, or rather, second kill. She did take care of the one guy in the mech back in chapter three, but that wasn't as close and personal as actually cutting his neck open and watching him die.**

**War is a gruesome thing, and I wanted Lyn's reaction to that to be more realistic than "Oh, I killed one of them nasty evil pirates, let's go save grandpa!" I hope the result is believable and not too wangsty.**

**On a more positive note, most of the important cast members for this leg of the story have been introduced, so I should be able to keep the character jumping to a minimum now. Thus leads me to this:**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Planet Bulgar, largest Sacean planet by population. It is here where the real adventure starts, or so a sad little tactician thinks.**

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**Constructive criticism and comment welcome. Thanks for reading.**


	7. Light the Fuse

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_The footsteps of fate rarely travel in a straight line._"

* * *

**Transport Shuttle **_**The Vicinti**_**, Hyper-space, Sacean Expanse**

Civilian travel, no matter how opulent, was quite boring. Especially for a mind such as the one he had. But under current circumstances, it was tantamount to torture, since there was nothing to plan, nothing to predict, and nothing to think about, other than how damn long it was taking for the transport to reach Bulgar from Badon.

It didn't help that right next to Mark sat a very corpulent woman and her infant. The younger of the two seemed intent on making a noise as loud as it was physically possible to make, despite the vain efforts of its mother to hush and coo it into submission. If that foul, grating noise weren't enough, the snoring man on Mark's other side was clearly an attempt of some demon from the ninth circle of hell to break free into the world of the living. His headache was going to be long and would reach depths of pain he'd never known before, when this funhouse ride finally ended.

Thus it was with great relief and a small shout of joy from Mark when _The Vicinti_ finally dropped from Hyper-space. Looming large in the port windows, even from his seat in the middle, was the blue and greens of Bulgar. Largest planet in Sacea by population, and full of opportunity, this was the best place, Mark reasoned, to start out.

Once his feet hit the boarding ramp, he was nearly running to get away from the shuttle. Once in the waiting lobby, he stopped to catch his breath. The number of people moving around him was staggering, and luckily for him, he blended in quite well. He did notice several security officers standing guard here and there, but they seemed more interested in the ebb and flow of the crowd.

The trip down the space elevator to the surface of the planet took about fifteen minutes, giving him a breath taking view of the planet as he and a dozen other descended. By the time he'd left the space port, his only traveling bag hooked over his shoulder, he was ready for whatever fate planned to throw at him.

Almost everything thrown at him. Something quite heavy smashed into the side of his head almost as soon as he'd stepped out onto the street. Darkness came shortly thereafter.

* * *

**Capitol City Bulgar, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

"I suppose that's a deal, little miss," said an aged lion Laguz. His fur and overalls were smudged with so much grease that it was hard to tell what color he really was, but Lyn thought it was safe to assume it wasn't pitch black. "I'll even throw you a deal and haul these two pirate mechs out of your hanger for free. It's the least I could do for how much they'll fetch me piecemeal."

"Thanks, Lamb," she said, patting the lion on the arm. "Well, I'm off to the surface to see if I can get some work. Got to eat somehow."

"You take care, little miss," Lamb said with a wave. He turned and walked away as Lyn left toward the exit. She took one last look behind her into the cavernous hanger built to house a Mothership. Since there wasn't a Mothership anywhere near that would ever need the kinds of repairs that this hub could provide, the small time mechanics and other entrepreneurial minded people rented out space for repair on smaller vessels, such as Carriers like _The Lorca_.

With one last glance at her home, she turned and walked from the hanger. She entered the hallway leading to the space elevator and found Bob waiting for her. It wasn't the first option she would have chosen, but when Bee rebooted, that was the first suggestion out of her emotionless digital vocal cords. Unfortunately, the name stuck.

"Go to vast plains for hunt?" Bob asked.

"Yes," she said. She still wasn't sure what he meant half the time. But after a week of normal space travel to Bulgar, it was reasonable to assume she probably never would. "We'll need to pick up odd jobs to earn money for food. We'll come back here for rest. It'll probably be a week's worth of work before we're ready to head out to Lycia. That is what you're more fluent in, so I assume that's where you'll likely find a lead as to who you really are, _Bob_."

She enjoyed poking fun at his temporary name. It was that ridiculous. But her erstwhile companion didn't seem to mind. His only reply to her barb was a toothy cat-grin that only Laguz cats could pull off as well, which she found cute. Thus she'd been using the name every chance she got.

As the elevator descended toward the surface, where it would eventually dock at the space port, Lyn listed in her mind all the places to go for work. There were the farms, always a good source of day labor, though the pay wasn't all that great, it was better than nothing. An honest day's work for an honest day's wages.

Then there was dock work, which she's found distasteful but endured anyway. It wasn't so much the hard labor as the disturbingly long looks some of the men gave her. There was also a woman doing the same once, which in her mind didn't jibe right at all.

After that, there was mechanical work. People in the Expanse respected the native Sacean technicians for their natural talent in the technical field. This played to her benefit when she looked for easy money sometimes, since there were some exceptionally rich people on Bulgar that were not Sacean. Mostly vacationing people from across the galaxy.

Finally, there was good, old fashioned hunting. The planet was home to a fruitful stock of wild animals that, for the most part, were docile. More apt to run away than fight back, giving many a good chase for their food, or for sport if the hunter was so inclined. Since the majority of the population lived in one city and a few surrounding villages, the planet never really had problems keeping up the wild animal population.

"I'm going to guess that the faster we get funds, the better," she said as the elevator was slowing to a stop. "We'll start with looking for technical work then, since it pays faster. After that, we'll just have to work our way down."

"With honor!" Bob said. Lyn shook her head, a bemused smile on her face, as the elevator doors slid open and she walked out.

* * *

**Ten minutes later…**

The space elevator doors opened to reveal the wide, bright smile of Sain. As he walked out, stuffed duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he left in his wake Kent, who was most certainly _not_ jovial in the least. Not after _that_ shuttle ride with _him_.

"I can hardly believe we have arrived," Sain said with his arms outstretched, as if to greet the new planet with a hug. "It seems like only yesterday we were walking down the streets on Caelin. Ah, how wonderful modern technology is. Wouldn't you say, my ever dour McGrumpartner?"

"Sain, if I had my way, you'd have made the trip in a body bag," Kent said. He straightened his stance and lifted his duffel as he walked out of the elevator and past Sain. "You have no morals at all, and your incessant flirting with _every-single-woman_ on our ship as put both of us on the death list of at least half the men in Sacea by now. Frankely, I'm not sure how you survived childhood acting like this."

Sain, grin never leaving his face, wrapped his arm around Kent's shoulders as they walked toward the exit. "My boon companion, please, you wound me. We're on an adventure through the stars. What kind of adventure would it be if there was no romance involved?"

"The only romance you'll find if you keep flinging yourself at every pretty set of eyes is going to be found at the barrel of a gun when their husbands, boyfriends, fathers, or whatever male that cares about them finds out about you." Shaking his shoulders, Kent pushed Sain's hands off of his shoulders and walked faster. "Now let's start asking so we can find this Sacean fleet and hurry home."

Pushing through the throngs of people coming and going in the space port was an event in and of itself. Beings of every species mingled and moved, talked and interacted. The gathering was great enough to cause a low din of constant sound in the background.

As Kent pushed through the final throng of people, he ran smack into Sain's duffel. _When did he get in front of me?_ He was about to nudge him to get him moving again when there was a loud snapping noise followed by Sain's whole body jerking. Kent rolled his eyes as Sain massaged his jaw with one hand and let his eyes follow the green haired beauty that had stalk away, followed quickly by a cat Laguz. She was dressed in the traditional Sacean garb of a simple long dress, blue, and a grey cloak

"Pray tell, what was that about?" Kent asked. He fought hard to keep his amusement to himself. To be professional. He just couldn't keep that hint of a snicker from his voice as he asked.

"I'd barely gotten a word out when her cute cheeks became all red and her perfect green eyes grew dark," Sain said distantly. "I didn't understand a word she said, but... she's beautiful. Even when she's cruel. I think I'm in love."

Kent rolled his eyes and pushed past Sain. "You've said that about every woman we've met so far. C'mon, let's go find a place to stay before we begin our search. There should be hotels nearby the space port. Perhaps you'll find your rosy cheeked, dark eyed beauty there."

The last line was said in jest, but Sain of course took it to be whole hearted. "I do hope so," he said with a dramatic sigh. "She looked an awful lot like that picture of the Governor's wife too. If only I could hook up with someone that striking. I'd be the envy of the department. Hah! More like the galaxy!"

Kent took two more steps before what Sain said sunk in. He whirled around and grabbed Sain by the shoulders. "Did you say she looked like Madelyn Blitzkrieger, as in nearly exactly?"

Sain nodded, still dazed. Then it hit him. "Oh no, you don't mean… She is our target? What a dolt I am!" He slapped himself on the forehead and hurried after Kent, who'd left him standing there to chase down Lyn.

The two of them got out of the space port and onto the busy street, only to witness the most distressing scene of five burly men wielding vibro-axes attacking the girl and her companion. While the cat Laguz was quick on his feet and had gotten a few good hits in, it looked like he was clearly outmatched by the bulky behemoth he was attempting to take down to get to the girl being held in a choke hold behind him.

Kent rushed in without a second thought, ducking underneath the slug of one of the men only to come back with an upper cut. The blow stopped Kent cold when his hand exploded in pain from the impact and he fell back to nurse his wounded knuckles. The bandit didn't appear any worse for the wear and smirked as he picked up his axe and hurled it at Kent.

Sain leaped in at this point, knocking down Kent out of the way. The axe sailed by overhead and smashed into some poor unsuspecting fellow just walking out of the spaceport. He dropped like a sack full of bricks. By the time Kent and Sain were back on their feet, the five men and the girl were gone, a black, non-descript everyday transport carriage making quick tracks down the road.

By this time, a crowd of people had formed a ring around the four of them. The cat Laguz had apparently been knocked to the ground as well. Kent and Sain, no worse for the wear, swore under their breath. The guy on the ground groaned. This was how the Port Authority Police found them.

"Alright, no body leaves," said an officer. "You've caused a disturbance and are going to be placed under arrest and questioned to get to the bottom of this disturbance."

"Officer," Kent said, "quick, there's been a kidnapping. Five big, hulking men took a girl wit-"

"Hold your words for when we get you back to the station," the officer said. He motioned toward other officers behind him. They all moved in, grabbing Sain, Kent, and the cat Laguz.

"But-"

"I said quiet," the officer shouted, "unless you want to spend the night in the city jail. Take 'em away boys." Kent continued to shout and resist as he was led away. Sain, for once, looked serious as he contemplated the situation they were in. The cat Laguz tried to break free to go chase after the girl, but the officer's grip on him was too tight.

"Sir, what would you like for us to do about this one?"

The lead officer looked down at the young man who was out cold on the ground. The still active vibro-axe lay on the ground a short distance away from his hand. A small dribble of drool dripped from the young man's mouth.

"He's got a wily look about him," the officer said, "and maybe that other guy was telling the truth and this guy is one of the kidnappers. Certainly looks like he'd fit in with _that_ crew. Though, maybe a new recruit. Book him too." The officer asking the question nodded and called another officer over to help carry the unconscious man. "We'll get to the bottom of this real soon," the lead officer said. "Everyone else, please go about your business. There's nothing to see here."

The crowds had watched all of this in relative silence. When the lead officer had left, they began milling about, talking about what they'd just seen. The rumors started this day would spread across the city faster than the meager news service could report it. Reports of wild cat Laguz attacking in gangs sprang up, followed closely by rumors of gangs of kidnapping thugs roaming the streets.

* * *

**A/N: I've found that this story is really fun to write. A lot of things are similar to FE7, so far, and for the moment that will likely remain the same, but aside from plot direction, that's all that is the same. I've had to make up a whole galaxy of inter-related cultures and stuff within the boundaries of FE lore. It's lots of fun so far, and I hope it stays that way. I suppose I wanted to stay close enough to the canon plot to give newcomers to my idea an easier learning curve.**

**This chapter was a bit of a chore to write, since it really didn't have much action. I was going for a kind of criminal drama kind of chapter, with different scenes, each from a unique perspective that together weave an interesting tale. Mark getting knocked out and the fight scene at the end, ended up tying the whole thing together in an unplanned way. This chapter was initially supposed to go until Lyn got rescued, but this felt like a more natural stopping point.**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Wheels of fate be turning round. Lyn finds herself being held by some unscrupulous men. Does she find a way out or is she rescued?**

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**Constructive criticism and comments welcome. Thanks for reading.**


	8. Incident in Bulgar City

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_Fate is coincidence. Coincidence is fate. The difference lies in the believer._"

* * *

**Port Bulgar Security Center Lock-up, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

"This has to be the worst detective work, no, the worst security force in the entire galaxy," Kent said with an exasperated display of throwing his hands into the air. "It's no wonder that bandits and other scum of the galaxy like to go to the Expanse to hide, because they'll never get caught!"

"This is the fourth time you've gone on about this subject," said Mark, "second with arm gestures. Third where the undertone of disgust in your voice has grown."

"Why are you so calm?" Kent all but shouted. "This is preposterous. You weren't even involved in the scuffle. How can you be so calm when you're in a situation like this?"

"Shouting like a drunken outlaw who just made payday won't change my situation, so far as I know," Mark said slowly. It was almost as if he were taunting Kent with how slow he spoke and how well he enunciated the words. If it weren't for the bars separating them, then Sain, who was observing all of this from a third cell, was positive his good friend would be throttling the young man. "Let me ask you a question now. Why are you so outraged? From your rationalization of the situation earlier, you don't strike me as the kind of person who would let themselves get this out of control."

"I… Aside from these buffoons being the idiot police of Bulgar," Kent started, waving his arms at the wall to indicate where the rest of the "idiot police" were probably taking a break that included more donuts than he could shake a stick at, "an innocent girl was kidnapped by bandits, or mercenaries, or whoever. It certainly doesn't help that we were assigned to bring her to meet with her grandfather before he dies."

"And you're worried that your career is on the line here," Mark finished. "I suppose that would be a reasonable cause for worry."

"Well," Kent said with a frown. Then quietly, he said, "That's not the only reason. I-I just don't want an innocent person to get hurt, that's all." Kent's sudden shift in attitude made Sain perk up. He stood and walked to the front of his cell to peer across the hall at Kent.

"You sly dog," Sain said with a smirk. "I should warn you though. I have first dibs."

"I am _not_ you, Sain," Kent said, sending his partner a withering glare. "And you'll be just as fired as I'll be if this mission continues to go as badly as it has so far."

"What about you Mark," Sain said, ignoring Kent. "What are you here for?"

"Because some idiot threw an axe and hit me in the head," Mark said. Kent deadpanned while Sain snickered slightly. Neither said anything, waiting for Mark to continue. "Oh alright," Mark said after the silence became too much to bear. "I'm a tactician. Recently graduated. I came here looking for work. I figure with all the outlaws and pirates riding around here, there must be plenty of work for someone with my talents."

"A tactician, eh?" Sain said, whistling. "You guys are a rare breed. Only ever saw one on a Vid when the President was giving a speech after the Mad King's War."

"That pompous dumbass is a limp noodle compared to me," Mark said. He puffed out his chest and nodded, as if to acknowledge the non-existent praise fan girls or some other crowd was giving him. Kent and Sain just stared. "I'm the best there ever was," he continued. "Perhaps the best there ever will be."

"Brilliant," Kent said. He threw his hands into the air and started pacing his cell again. "Just excellent. We're stuck in jail. Our mission's gone to hell in a hand basket. And the galaxies greatest tactician has decided to deign us with his _glorious_ presence. This day has just been the greatest day ever!"

With that Kent slumped down onto the bench built along the concrete wall at the back of his cell. Sain rolled his eyes and then suddenly a frown creased his brow. Mark smirked, though remained quiet in his amusement.

"I just thought of something Kent," Sain said. "Remember how the Chief said that something felt off about this trip? Well, when we left the space port, I didn't initially get a good look around, because of the crowds, but during the fight, I noticed that there was a space open where the abductors had been standing, almost as if they'd cordoned it off and didn't allow anyone to park their vehicles there. Like they were waiting for her to leave the building."

"Are you sure?" Kent asked. "I was too busy fighting that hulking mass of muscle to see too much. And our _master tactician_ over there," he added, throwing his thumb over his shoulder at Mark, "was out cold before he saw anything."

"I'll have you know I have a photographic memory," Mark said and then he closed his eyes and shuddered. "I'll never be able to get the image of that axe flying at my face out of my mind now."

"I'm sure of it," Sain said. "Perhaps this is what the Chief was talking about. No one besides us, the Chief, and Governor Hausen knew we were coming here. If they knew where to find Lyndis, then someone must have leaked the info. I mean, until the Governor got that message from his estranged daughter, no one even knew that Lyndis existed."

"Do you think that the Governor send Mercs to collect her?" Kent asked. "Then why all the secrecy? And why bother wasting the taxpayer's money to send us? Neither of those things adds up. Besides, we don't even know if they came for her or were just randomly abducting people. They _were_ bandits, after all. They don't need logic to be criminals."

"They did come for her," said a new voice, "they called her out of the crowd, by name. I even saw a picture of her that one of the men was carrying."

The detectives and Mark turned to the fourth cell, occupied by the Laguz cat man who was also fighting the brutes. He sat on the bench at the back of his cell like Kent, but he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and hands clasped together. Since the Laguz was in the cell next to Sain, he moved over and sat down next to the bars separating the two holding areas.

"Were you traveling with her?" Kent asked. "You were fighting to try and save her before we even got out there."

"Yes," the cat man said, "I-I was adrift in space, not too long back. She found me, took me in, and even saved me from a pirate who tried to kill me. I can't remember my name, or where I come from, but she is helping me anyway. I think… I believe it's a Sacean custom to help guests as much as physically possible. To be a good host. But I'm not sure where that knowledge comes from. I can even speak some Sacean, but it's mostly broken. She puts up with it anyway. Saving her is the least I can do in return for her efforts for me."

"So that's your story," Sain said. "And here I thought you were her lover or something. Excellent. Excellent."

"Sain, would you give it a rest already?" Kent grumbled. He stood once more and began pacing. Every few seconds he would clench his fists and cast a glare at the stone wall at the back of his cell.

"Here we go again," Mark noted dully. "Hey, Mr. Detective, how about we try it my way this time?"

"What?" Kent said. He stopped pacing and faced Mark. Sain stood as well and moved to the front of his cell. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that I'll lend you my skills in exchange for employment," Mark said. "See, this is how I see the current situation we all happen to find ourselves in. Based on what you've said, and what the Laguz has said, this Lyndis is a Sacean who happens to be the Granddaughter of a Governor of Lycia. Unless politics have changed there in the last five minutes, that means he's as rich as or the richest man in his space. Saceans are looked down upon in Lycia as uneducated, amoral savages, despite their ability to manipulate tech like it's no one's business. So that means that, if someone is out to get Lyndis, and not bring her safely to her grandfathers side, then someone in the upper echelons of your space's society has other ideas. The only ones who would not want to out the secret that the Governor has a half Sacean granddaughter would be anyone that would stand to lose standing should that happen. His enemies, no doubt, would have just released the information to the masses instead of sending assassins or kidnappers."

"Ludgren!" Sain shouted suddenly. "That slimy… He's the Governor's brother, and the current Vice-governor. Also, heir to the Blitzkrieger fortune. The fortune is said to be quite substantial and is currently controlled mostly by the Governor. If the news that he had a half Sacean daughter broke, the family's stock would go down by several orders of power overnight! It has to be Ludgren."

"Sain, think about what you're saying," Kent said. "You're saying that the Vice-governor is trying to have his own grandniece assassinated just to save face. That's… that's…"

"Sounds about right to me," Mark said. "The Lycian wealthy are notorious for their internal power struggles. Not to mention some famously large, and quite bloody, battles over some minor petty disputes. If Lyndis has anyone out to get her, it will most likely be the Vice-governor."

"This is all good to know," the cat man said. "But it doesn't get us out of these cells any faster. Mark, you said you had an idea. Does it involve escaping?"

"Yes," Mark said. "Though, until I get pay back, I'm going to hold an everlasting grudge against Kent."

This piqued Kent's interest. He crossed his arms and tilted his head while he waited for Mark to elaborate. Mark's smirk grew wider.

* * *

**Warehouse District, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

Lyn awoke with a start from the inky blackness of unconsciousness. A constant ache waxed and waned with the pumping of her heart from the backside of her head. That pain, the gag in her mouth, and the heavy ropes wrapped tightly around her, reminded her why she woke up to find herself on the floor of a cavernous empty building surrounded by big, bulky men who smelled like they hadn't bathed since, most likely, their mothers last attempted it.

Luckily, since all of their backs were turned, none noticed that she was awake. This was fortunate since they appeared to be in a strategy meeting of some sort. And even she didn't have good hearing, they were talking very loud.

"So we can't kill the girl like our contract said because Boss wants to hold her ransom?" asked one particularly slow looking individual. Since all of these men were large, hulking, masses of muscle, he really didn't stand out from the group. But the man's mouth hung open after he finished speaking, as if he were in a state of being constantly dumbfounded.

"Like I said," replied another bulking man. Apparently, he was 'Boss'. "The girl's grandfather is stinkin rich. He sent those to agents to get her all secret like, yeah? So why get paid so little to just kill her when we could just contact the grandfather directly and _persude_ him to pony up a little more. Then we'll turn around and sell her to some slavers. She's not that bad looking, we'd make a pretty buck off of her."

"Hehe, you're smart boss," said Dumbfounded. Several other of the small group, numbering maybe fifteen, added in their agreement. Boss must have then done something that Lyn couldn't see because everyone suddenly fell silent.

"Glass," Boss said, "why are you being so quiet? What? Is the greatest swordsman ever too good to work like everyone else?"

"No, Zugu," replied Glass, "just too good to work for you. I told you that after this job is finished I'm taking my guys and going my own way. This job's nearly done, you're gonna get your money, and I don't have to see your ugly face again."

"Don't make fun of the Boss!" shouted Dumbfounded. "You have some damn respect."

"Pay him no mind, Bug," Zugu said. Lyn nodded to herself. Dumbfounded's name was Bug. "He's the _greatest swordsman alive_," he added, clearly mocking Glass.

"Tch, whatever." Glass started walking away. "Come on, boys. We're leaving. No sense waiting around."

About half of the men gathered in front of Lyn left the group and began walking away. This let her see the rest of the cavernous building she was in was actually not so empty. On the other side of what she now recognized as a goods warehouse, stood several mechs.

Glass was easy to pick out from the group walking away, because he was the only one not big, bulky, and ugly. Instead, he was tall, and sinewy, with a Vibro-sword strapped to his back. Perhaps there was more to this claim of being the best swordsman than she first thought.

Lyn watched Glass climb up into what at first glance looked like a Mercenary Class mech, but she had never seen one with a Helix Canon attached to it. If she didn't know better, then that machine used to be an Archer Class. But that was impossible. It would take nothing short of Dragon Tech to build something like that. Just who was this Glass character?

As Glass, and several Brigand Class's lifted off and flew out of the Warehouse's main door, her kidnappers began to talk again. Despite the growing urge to get away, she remained still. What they were saying could be useful. After all, she learned that they thought she was some rich man's granddaughter. If she kept listening, these loose tongued idiots might let slip some information that could help her escape.

"I don't like him, Boss," Bug said.

"I'm not too worried about him," said another brute. "We'll be rolling in luxury and he'll still be in those damn caverns trying to pull the Katti from their stone. What an idiot."

The mention of the Katti set alarms off in her mind. Glass had gone after the Katti? He had to be stopped! Now she had to get out of here! The first thing she'd do is notify the police that the Katti were in danger. Then… oh who was she kidding. She needed to escape first and that wasn't happening very quickly.

"Hey look!" shouted one of the men said. "She woke up!"

Before she could think of how they'd noticed, she was surrounded by all of them. Zugu stood in front of her and Bug next to him. She tried saying that she wasn't afraid of them, regardless of her flip-flopping stomach, but all that came out was muffled noise.

Zugu kneeled so that he was at eye-level. Then he grinned. "Good morning, Princess," he said. "Welcome back to the world of the living. I'm sorry for having to kidnap you, but it's just business. I'm sure you understand. Big ole grandpa Hausen wants little baby Lyndis brought safely home while mean old Uncle Ludgren wants you dead. Hehe, they'll both pay through the nose for it. Ah, the things I'll do for money."

"Mmm! Mmm!"

"Hehe, Boss, she said she loves you and wants to give you a kiss," Bug said. If she could do anything, she would have kicked Bug where the sun don't shine in an instant. As it was, she settled for unleashing a glare she remembered her father making at slimy business men who tried ripping him off. Bug, of course, was either too dumb or too ugly to comprehend and grinned at her.

"Now now, Bug," Zugu said. "We're not in that sort of business. We have standards, unlike those monstrous Taliver. She's not going anywhere. Leave her tied up until the extra funds clear and then we'll leave for the Black Market."

Zugu stood and laughed. He continued laughing as he walked away. The other men chuckled or laughed themselves as they all walked away to other parts of the warehouse.

Lyn tried to struggle in her bonds, but her heart wasn't in it. Zugu's words were going in circles inside of her mind. How did he know her name? Was it really possible that she wasn't alone in this galaxy all this time? Did she really have a grandfather named Hausen? Why hadn't she known?

It could only be because it was from her Mother's side of the family. She never really talked about her family much. Whenever Lyn had asked, her mother always changed the topic. Eventually, she stopped asking.

But now she knew. It was possible she had a grandfather. Family. She had family left. And now, because of these men, she was probably never going to meet them.

Tears were threatening to spill when one of the Brigand Units sitting next to the door exploded. The shockwave knocked Lyn back a few feet. She smashed into a wooden box, which fell apart, but cushioned her landing.

The explosion made her vision go sideways for a moment. When it finally cleared, she saw five figures running into the warehouse, two of them letting off plasma shots left and right. It was a raid, she realized. Probably from the local police. This was her chance to escape.

She looked about herself to get a feeling for her surroundings. She quickly noticed a sharp piece of wood from the smashed box she'd landed on sticking out of the mess underneath her. Wiggling her way over to it, she began sawing the rope binding her hands with the sharp edge as fast as she could.

* * *

**Moments before, outside the Warehouse…**

"Kent, when I said choke me, I didn't think you'd really choke me!"

"You're bringing that up now?"

"You tried to kill me!"

"Hey! Now's not the time! We need to find which warehouse Lyn is in, and fast. We're just lucky that Bee still has her com's signal. They could have taken her off planet already and we'd never find her."

The hushed conversation took places in the dark behind some large crates of some kind of fruit. Since it was the Warehouse District, crates like this one were spread all over the place, awaiting distribution. They also offered perfect hiding places while sneaking through the area.

Bob peeked around the corner of the boxes they were huddled behind. The area in front of the next warehouse was empty. Some of the previous buildings had security teams patrolling around them, but not this one.

"No one's watching this one," he said over his shoulder. "It might be empty." They'd already run into another few buildings that didn't have any crates, vehicles, or security around them. The buildings were, of course, empty.

"Just makes our search easier," Mark said. "Let's go."

The four snuck from their cover, quickly moving to the slightly ajar doors of the targeted warehouse. That's when a loud noise pierced the air and the door opened wider. All four dashed back for cover. Just as they got behind the boxes again, they saw several mechs fly out of the warehouse.

"I think we've found the right warehouse," Kent said. He clenched his fist and pounded it on the crate of fruit. "Damn! We were too late!"

"Hold on," Sain said. "The lights are still on in the warehouse. There could be more of them that know what's going on."

"Let's go find out," Bob said. He dashed for the warehouse entrance. The other followed. They silently moved along the outside of the warehouse door like cat burglars on the prowl.

Bob stopped at the edge of the opening and peered in. Six or seven of the big hulking men from earlier in the day were all standing around in a circle on the far side of the room. Then one of them knelt down and he could just make out the Lyn's green hair. A grin split his face as he pulled back and turned to the others. "She's still in there," he said. "They have Brigand mechs, so they're probably pirates or something. Stay here. I'm goin to-

At that moment, one of the Brigand mechs exploded. The blast was powerful enough to knock over the other mechs sitting next to it. The four standing outside the warehouse rushed around the door to see what had happened and were confronted with a man standing in front of the flaming wreckage, dressed entirely from head to toe in body conforming black armor, with a black cape flapping behind him in the draft caused by the fire, and a long silver broadsword with a golden hilt and pommel in one hand.

"Stay out of my way," the Black Knight said, his voice deep and rough. Then he turned, lifted his broadsword, and charged toward Zugu and his thugs.

* * *

The Black Knight ran toward the fools who were attempting to repel him. The servos built into his suit legs activated as he ran. Granted inhuman speed, he crossed the open space in a matter of seconds and swung his sword.

One thug fell, dead.

Behind him the two detectives and their friends entered. Beyond noting that two of them had plasma guns, he ignored them. His next target appeared before him and he swung his sword.

One more thug fell, dead.

By now the other bandits were on to him and started swinging their Vibro-axes at him. He let the blows hit, and be deflected by, his black armor. The surprised looks on their faces left him with another opening and he swung once more. Swing. Swing. Swing. Pivot. Swing.

In no time at all, all the men except for one very scared, slack jawed idiot was dead. He advanced on the man and raised his sword. That's when she appeared between him and his target.

"Don't do it," she said. Apparently her friends had untied her. He moved to push her out of the way and kill the final man. "I said don't," she repeated, louder, as she pushed back.

"Move out of my way," he said. She gave no indication that she was going to move and so he lowered his sword. "Have it your way."

He turned and walked over the dead men lying on the floor toward the remaining Brigand mechs. While the girl and her friends talked, he raised his sword and slashed at the mech. A beam of energy left the edge of his sword and slashed straight through the mech and the one behind it. As those two exploded, he turned and slashed at the next, and the one after that until all of the mechs were piles of burning debris.

With his work done, the Black Knight sheathed his sword at his waist and lifted his arm and hit a couple buttons built into his gauntlet. A hover bike roared into the open space and stopped next to him. After mounting the bike, he gunned the engine, and blasted from the building.

He traveled out onto the road and headed for the open fields. As he flew down the road at breakneck speed, he lifted his gauntlet again and a holographic video screen formed from particles of light over it. After a few seconds, a man's face appeared. His green eyes framed by his straight black hair, narrowed.

"Mission accomplished, Master," the Black Knight said. "She has been rescued."

"Very well," the man said. "Is the carriage where Izuka requested? You know how tacticians get when their instructions aren't followed."

"Yes, Master."

"Good," the man said with a nod. "You should return at once, then. The Empress has need of her general."

"Returning home," the Black Knight said. The holographic screen disappeared and he grabbed the handling again. At the speed he was going, he was gone from the city in minutes. A trail of slowly settling dust was the only evidence of his presence.

* * *

Watching a sword, a honest to goodness metal broadsword, slice clean through a mech was, to be blunt, stupefying. That sort of thing just didn't happen. Until today.

Lyn could only watch as the mysterious Black Knight destroyed the mechs and then flew off on his bike. Bizarre did not begin to describe the incredulity of what had just happened. Mechs had armor built to resist the strikes of conventional kinetic weaponry and Vibro weaponry, with a slight resistance to plasma weapons if the individual plates of armor were magnetized. Nothing simply sliced clean through it though, nothing.

"T-the B-B-Black Kn-Kn-Knight!" Bug stuttered. "He-he-he just… Black Knight! Ehaaaaaaah!"

Bug threw his hands into the air and ran screaming from the building. No one really made a move to chase after him. A couple of them even felt like doing the same.

"Did that just happen?" Lyn asked.

"Hail," Bob said. "Uh… verily… eh… monolith of grapes?"

"Yeah" she said, unable to take her eyes from the burning wreckage and bodies strewn across the floor. "I feel the same way…" Her eyes widened as she remembered where she was and what was happing. "Bob!"

Bob suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a very tight hug. Unsure how to handle it, he flailed his arms until she let go. As he straightened out his cloak, Lyn took in the rest of her rescuers.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"Hail. Sain, knight of the Caelin. Kent, knight of Caelin. Mark of… wild beasts."

Lyn frowned as Mark was named. "Wild beasts? That's… odd." Mark's right eyebrow arched and he said something.

"Wild beast proclaims fealty to… uh… fourty-five lessons and fifty wars," Bob translated. By the sour look on his face, though, even he wasn't sure what he said. Lyn shook her head and nodded to the three men.

"I thank you for helping me," she said. "The lowlife told me of my grandfather in Caelin, so I assume that is why you've come. However, I cannot leave just yet. Some of these men's comrades are attacking the Katti Caverns. We have to inform the authorities before we can leave."

"Uh… hehe.. heh…"

Lyn frowned and turned to Bob, who sheepishly looked down and away. "What?" she asked. "Why are you laughing?"

"We… dishonorably retreated from evil confinement. Honorable guardians out for our blood," Bob said. He continued to stare at the ground, sneaking a peek at her before looking back down again. The pitiful kitten look he had almost made her laugh until she realized what he meant.

"Honorable guardians… wait, do you mean you broke out from jail and now you're wanted criminals?" Bob nodded slowly. Lyn groaned into her hands. "That's wonderful. _The Lorca_ is probably in lock down then and we can't warn them about the attack on the Katti."

Bob took a moment to convey what she'd just said to the others. They nodded each were nodding gravely until Sain's face lit up and he started talking animatedly to the others. From the reaction that Kent and Bob had, she assumed that it was probably a bad idea. Mark, though, said something that caused everyone to become quiet.

Bob turned to her and said, "Wild beast thinks redemption to be found in saving Katti. Hunting route agreed on, but horses are gone. All may be under hoof."

"So… Mark thinks if we save the Katti, the Police will forgive us, and we can leave," Lyn said, "but we don't have any way of getting to the Katti in time. Though... this is probably the only way to leave this planet before grandfather dies." Bob nodded. "We have to find a way," she said, desperation entering her voice, "L-Let's look around for some kind of transport that we can use. There has to be something. It's not just the Katti, but my grandfather's life in the balance. Come on!"

* * *

Sain watched Lyn run off as she started to frantically look high and low. "She's adamant about saving the Katti," Bob said. "We should probably help look for a transport."

They were just about to do that when sirens began to cry through the air. Kent and Sain looked at each other and then ran for Lyn. Mark and Bob ran for the door while the two detectives forcibly lifted Lyn and started for the door.

They emerged and ran for the cover of the crates they'd hidden behind earlier in the night. By now the sun was coloring the sky a bright pink. The sirens grew steadily louder as they ran and got behind the crates.

Moments later, no less than fourteen pursuit vehicles, yellow and green lights flashing, pulled up to the front of the warehouse. While the others moved further back behind the crates, Kent risked watching the men jump out of their vehicles and rush into the warehouse, plasma handguns drawn.

"Kent!" Sain said in a harsh whisper. "Kent!"

"What?" he demanded as he pulled back and turned to face his partner's cheekily smarmy expression.

"We found a ride," Sain said. He pointed over his shoulder at the black transport carriage. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N: This chapter was a bit difficult to write, mostly because I felt like the scenes were losing steam halfway through. I was stumbling around that last part before I put in the Black Knight. Ironically, I don't have most of this story planned out, so I'm adding sub-plots and plot threads as I go. As it turns out, adding them happens to be what my writer's mind felt was missing and made this chapter easier to finish and the next chapter all the more epic. That, of course, you'll see in a week. It is my intention to make this story character driven, mostly. Everything that happens has been set in motion by someone or something, and I hope to keep it that way. If you see any slip ups, please point them out to me.**

**To those readers who want to see more Tellius characters, maybe a showing from Marth and his buddies, possibly an appearance from the Thracia region or the epic appearance of Prince Ephraim of Renais; to you, dear readers I say, fear not! I've included in this three part story all of the current FE games. Yes, even the ones that aren't in English (FE 4 & 5). If anyone's got a good handle on those games, please point out any mistakes I make when I start blending in the Jugdral story. I appreciate it. Also I've decided that the characters of Fuin will have to wait till later because they are not, mostly, born yet. Roy and friends will eventually make their mark on the galaxy, just not this story.**

**On my profile page, I have noted when I'll be releasing the next chapter of this story and how much progress I've made on the chapter I'm currently working on. I'm going to try and keep to a weekly schedule of every one chapter every Wednesday. I may pre-empt my schedule and post on Tuesday evening, or maybe earlier if I feel like it, but the default is Wednesday.**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Lyn and her companions face their hardest challenge yet. If they survive, their path can only get more treacherous.**

* * *

**Constructive criticism and reviews appreciated. Thanks for reading.**


	9. The Chosen One

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_Those chosen by the Swords of Spirits are destined to become great protectors of life._"

* * *

**Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space**

Ludgren stalked the halls of the Blitzkrieger Mansion with a grave expression. Most everyone who passed him, he assumed, took his dour mood to be a reaction to his brother's long suffering. In reality, it was a grimace of barely contained rage.

The old man just wouldn't die! Even that new poison that he was given wouldn't finish him off. He clung to life like a molecularly bonded polymer.

And the girl was still alive as well. He'd paid good money for those buffoons to have her killed off. Then he hears they're trying to get more money by contacting his brother. If his brother weren't dying, the game would have been up before he could intercept the message. Too bad he had to kill the girl. He could use someone with her tenacity.

No, he needed her dead. If sending a pack of mercenaries after her wasn't going to work, then perhaps a different plan of attack was in order. Yes, one that would be much easier to control than some random mercenary idiots.

His long march down the halls came to a stop in front of the Governor's PR office. His brother set it up here as a way of keeping control of his image. A wicked smile came over his face as he pushed open the door.

"Gentlemen," he said before any of the four people inside the room could stand or say anything. "I'm afraid I have some rather grave news. The Governor isn't dying."

"What?" asked the head of PR, a Mr. Anderson or some such name. It wasn't important enough to remember. He'd leaped from his chair as if his favorite sports team had won some insignificant contest. "That's not grave news. That's great news!"

"Let me clarify, then," Ludgren said. He stared at Anderson until he sat back down into his chair. "My brother isn't dying of natural causes. Rather, he's being poisoned by a savage Sacea harlot."

"You have proof?" Anderson asked. Ludgren knew that this man was soon going to be unemployed. He asked too many questions to be of any use for much longer.

"Yes," Ludgren replied. It was a good thing he had contacts that could forge him anything he wanted. He pulled out the papers that had the 'evidence' of Lyndis' attack on the governor. "I just recently found this in my brother's room. I believe he was too ashamed of the fact that he was seeing a woman so young, but at this point, my brother's life hangs in the balance. Given the choice, I choose his life over his reputation."

"Why haven't the police arrested her yet?" another of the men asked. "We should contact Chief Wallace and have him send people out to get her."

"No good," Anderson said, as he leafed through the pages. "Wallace is involved, as are two detectives. If this conspiracy goes this high, we'll have to bring in outside contractors to clean it up quietly."

"Actually," Ludgren said, "I didn't come here to ask for advice on what to do. I feel it is too late for quiet clean ups. What I want is to call on the people of Caelin themselves to help track down and find her and her accomplices. Ask them to volunteer in the State Guard or something patriotic like that. At this point, I don't have much hope for my brother lasting much longer, but at the very least we can find his killer. This… Sacean Mongrel who uses my dead sister-in-law's name, may she rest in peace. Since we don't know who else is involved, we should keep the traditional enforcement out of the loop until the very last moment. Let them prove their loyalty after the people are clearly against the conspirators."

"We'll see what we can do," Anderson said. "Thank you for trusting us with this, Vice-governor."

"Good day gentlemen," Ludgren said. "I'll leave you to your work." His disgruntled mask was back as he turned and exited the room, but his smile slithered back after he was out and walking down the halls again. There was even an extra bounce in his step.

* * *

**Planet Ostia, Capital System, Lycian Space**

"Uther, I hope the times find you well," boomed the life-size holographic representation of King Caineghis. His long made of finely combed red hair lay across one shoulder while the regal blue robe representing his station in Gallian society, namely that of kingship, lay draped across the other. Though the words Caineghis said didn't come across as accusatory, actually kind of sociable, his grim expression told he was anything but in a good mood.

This, Uther quickly realized, was not a happy call. In fact, he was waiting for Caineghis to contact him. Had been for a few days now. Dragons knew why it took so long.

"Not as well as I hope they find you, friend King," Uther said, returning the customary greeting. "Before you ask, no. Ambassador Ranulf hasn't yet found his way back to us. I've mobilized an intelligence team to find him. You have my word that the best are on the job."

"I'm afraid I cannot move forward based solely on your word, Uther," Caineghis said. "Do not take this the wrong way. I simply do not trust Ambassador Ranulf to come out of hiding so easily, if that is what he is doing. As good as your intelligence officer may be, it will take a Gallian to find a Gallian, even in the Sacean Expanse."

"It may take time," Uther said, "but I have faith in my agents. They'll pull through in the end."

"Indeed," Caineghis said. He tilted his head to the side a little and then smirked. "You place a lot of faith in your men Uther. I suppose that's to be expected from the famed General of the Battle of Talrega. Hopefully, you're faith will not stop you from accepting a little help."

"I assure you," Uther said. It was a battle within himself, but he kept his cool. "It's only a matter of time until the Ambassador is found. I too wish his safe return. However, if your majesty wishes to assist, then it will be accepted whole heartedly. Who, might I ask, would you send to assist, though?"

The smirk having never left Caineghis' face, he said, "The new Ambassador that was to take Ambassador Ranulf's place and her escort. I'm sure it won't be too much trouble."

"Of course not," Uther said. "In the end, we both want the same thing."

"Excellent. Fare well, President Uther."

"And to you, fare well, your majesty."

Once the formalities were finished, Uther let out a long breath he hadn't known that he'd been holding. His suit suddenly felt several times more constricting than it did that morning. He ignored this and went to his desk.

After several moments of thought, he grunted and picked up the receiver of his white phone. "Shirley, I believe the new Gallian Ambassador will be arriving soon. Please let their embassy know I'd like to meet with her as soon as she gets here."

"Sir," Shirley replied, "the new Gallian Ambassador arrived while you were speaking to King Caineghis. Do you want me to send them in now?"

Uther shook his head and chuckled under his breath. Caineghis had played him, and quite good at that. He wouldn't be called King if he couldn't at least play politics. Apparently he'd mastered the art. "Yes, send them in."

The door to his office opened as Uther put the white phone back into its cradle. He looked up and grinned at the first person he saw. "Escort, huh?" he asked as he stood and stretched his hand out. "Welcome to Lycia, General Ike."

* * *

**Katti Ruins, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

The ruins that bore the name Katti were not named so because of some ancient race, family, or civilization. Rather, it was actually a plain old castle built in the old ways. In fact, the castle's name has long been forgotten. The only reason it was noted on any map was because of the exclusive access that the ruins had to the crystal caverns that ran through the hills.

Colossal geodes, defying all natural laws of physics, had formed under the ground the castle was built upon. The mineral deposits were so thick, and dense, that it was impractical to cut through it, especially when there was already an entrance at the ruins. The mystical, probably magical, nature of the unnatural, miraculous occurrence only added to the mystique and grandeur of what was housed inside the cavern.

Two legendary swords, twin blades with potent magical powers, rested in the depths of the caverns. The Mani Katti, sword of the moon and bearer of justice and the Sol Katti, sword of the sun and bearer of truth. Centuries had passed since the last wielder was noted in history, though many have tried fruitlessly to add their name to the list. Only the Katti themselves will choose their next wielder, and none of the many power hungry individuals who've yet tried to dislodge the blades from their stone pedestals have succeeded.

The ruins above the caves were nestled in between two mountains and camouflaged by a dense forest infested with vines, thickets of sticker bushes, and other intertwined foliage. The dirt road that wound through the forest and led to the ruins was the only clear way to get there on foot. Brakes squealed as a black, non-descript carriage pulled to a stop just out of sight before entering the forest road.

"This is the place?" Sain asked as he exited the vehicle. He looked around the plains they'd just traveled across and then back to the thick forest. He scratched his head as he looked back and forth a couple more times.

"Sain request far-sight, locate temple?" Bob asked as he pushed open the back door and hopped out.

"Yes," Lyn said as she stepped out behind Bob. "I've been here to pray for a safe journey every time I've visited Bulgar. But… something's wrong." She walked around the carriage and then peered down the dusty, sunbathed road that led to the ruins. An old sign that clearly had a symbol the resembled a carriage with a large red X over it told all visitors they had to travel the rest of the way on foot. Standing empty next to the beginning of the forested area was a booth.

"I assume that something of this importance would be guarded, right?" Kent said. "But the guards are not here."

"No," Sain said. "They're still here." His spoke quietly, but his voice was hard. Not knowing what he'd found, Lyn rounded the carriage and she saw him standing by the forest's edge holding back a bush. Revealed were two bloody corpses dressed in the vestments of a St. Elimine priest. She gasped when she saw the state they were in.

"Those thugs must already be here," Kent said. He walked up to Sain and put a hand on his partner's shoulder. "We'll get them," he said. Sain didn't look away from the dead priests, but nodded.

"This road is a good place for an ambush," Mark announced. "If we're going in, then we'll need a plan to keep from joining those guys."

"What did you have in mind?" Bob asked. "If they have mechs, they can just fly around and see us walking down the road. If we went through the forest, we wouldn't make it there in time."

"If you can get us in," Sain said, "we'll take care of the rest."

"Hmmm…" Mark looked down the trail leading through the forest, watching as it curved to the right until all was forest. "Getting in won't be a problem. But we'll need to pray for our soul's salvation."

Sain frowned at first, then he broke out into a grin as he caught on. Kent picked up immediately after Sain did and scowled at Mark. His scowl only deepened when they both looked at him and smiled like a pair of cats that had swallowed a flock of canaries. Lyn watched all of this curiously since she had no clue what was going on.

"No," Kent snarled, his face red. "Absolutely not!"

* * *

**Twenty Minutes later, at the Katti Ruins proper…**

Two grunts stood guard at the pedestrian entrance to the ruins long ago built by the Church of Elimine. The remains of the three priests that manned the post were cast to the side in a bloody heap behind a collapsed wall. The grunts gripped their Vibro-axes in one hand and had their arms crossed as they blocked entrance.

They both looked at each other as a black, non-descript carriage pulled up to the entrance. When a man, in full bishop regalia, stepped from the driver's seat, and a monk from the passenger's seat, they activated their Vibro-axes. As the two holy men approached they held out their hands and motioned for them to stop.

"Head back the way you came, priest," one thug said. "We're in control here and there's nothing you can do about it."

The monk, a light furred cat Laguz, turned to the imperious and stoic red-haired bishop and started speaking in Lycian. The two thugs glanced at each other humorlessly.

"Damn Lycian clergy," one of the thugs said. "Can't tell one thing they're saying."

"Yeah, hehe," the other replied. "Every time I hear one of them talk it makes me think they're sucking a fat, long-"

"My Majesty, Bishop Kent, requests entrance for price of two babies and half a horse head," the monk said, cutting into their conversation. The grunts held together for all of two seconds before they burst out laughing. So hard, one of the Vibro-axes fell to the ground.

"Did you hear that?"

"I've heard some bad ones before, but that's retarded," snickered back the other thug. "He's got to have a brain disorder or something. Hahahahahah!"

"No bargain for witches," the monk said, voice filled with venom. "Go to the afterlife in pieces."

"Yeah yeah," the thug still holding his axe said. He wiped a tear from his face and continued lightly chuckling. "You're good for a laugh, Lycian scum, but you'll be leaving-wait, what did you just say?"

The wine of two plasma guns super-heating their rounds filled the air as Kent lifted his arms. The two guns appeared from inside the long sleeves of the robe and were quickly pointed at the dingy men's heads. At once all humor was gone.

The two thugs glanced at each other, knowing they'd been had. At once, they both made to move, to attack and to get the fallen axe respectively. Kent pulled both triggers and the only thing that the thugs ended up doing was hit the ground with smoking holes in their heads.

"Go in peace, my sons," Sain said as walked up and grabbed the gun Kent offered. Kent scowled at Sain.

"You're going to burn in hell, Sain," Kent said. "And if your womanizing doesn't kill you first, then I might." Sain just grinned as he took up a look out position with Lyn and Mark by the entrance while Bob and Kent disrobed. "Why did I have to do this? You could have worn this too."

"True," Sain said seriously, then he looked at Kent and grinned. "But we both know you'd take the role so much more seriously than I would. Besides, the guys back at the precinct will be getting priceless photos of this for years to come."

"I'm better at cyber crime than you are Sain," Kent said threateningly. He pulled the last of the robes over his head and tossed it into the carriage. "Remember last time you tried to buy something with your cred-card?"

Sain frowned and then his face scrunched up. "That was you? I was on the phone with those damn creditors all month. Hmm… Touche, my good man, touche." Sain grinned and nodded to everyone. "Time to go in. Kent and I will take point. The rest of you, keep your heads down if we come under attack."

As everyone entered the ruins, Mark got close to Kent and asked, "What did Sain do to deserve the cred-card thing?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," Kent said and moved ahead faster. Mark chuckled and followed.

The group entered the ruin interior, which really couldn't be called an interior without any semblance of a roof. It was really just a bunch of freestanding brick walls now. Once they'd entered, they found a cleared out space where all of the mechs were sitting near what used to be the center of the building. Two thugs stood guard there, but they were both preoccupied with whatever they were arguing about. Fortunately, the entrance to the cavern was well marked, and there were half fallen walls that would let them pass undetected.

Keeping bent as low as they could, they made their way through the dust and rubble of a former hallway. Circumventing the central clearing as fast as they could while remaining hidden behind the low wall was difficult, especially because of the echoing their walking made if they moved too fast. Despite that difficulty they made good time.

Getting to one corner of the ancient castle, Kent stopped and peered around to see if there was anyone guarding the next decaying hall. The wall in this section hadn't deteriorated as much, which mean they could walk taller, but at the same time, it looked like the wall was about to fall at any moment. There was also a lot of debris on the floor, meaning they had to watch their steps.

"Be careful where you walk," Kent whispered, motioning down the next hall with his gun. "The floor is full of junk. Don't trip. Also, the wall doesn't seem too sturdy. Try not to touch it."

With that warning in mind the began walking quickly and quietly down the next rotting 'hall' toward the entrance to the caves at the other end of the complex. It appeared that the former building used to be square, mostly. The entrance to the 'attraction' was in the opposite corner of the ruins than the corner they entered from. Parts of the 'attraction' became clearer as they closed in on the entrance. The argument between the two thugs began getting louder as they went.

Whether it was a sadistic breeze, the whim or fancy of fate, or the slight scratch that Lyn made on the wall, disaster decided to strike. With a crumbling crack and a snap, the wall between them and the thugs began to fall away toward the center clearing. With a loud crash, a huge cloud of dust was thrown into the air.

When it was clear, the two thugs, their argument forgotten, were pointing at the group and shouting. Kent and Sain reacted immediately and got down behind what was left of the wall for cover and began firing shots off at the thugs.

"Damn!" Kent shouted as he let off another couple rounds and then ducked back behind the wall to avoid the incoming plasma blots. The next time he fired, he noticed where the two men were standing. "Damn!" he shouted again. "They're using their mechs as shields. Our attacks aren't doing much damage."

A blot of plasma smashed into the rubble that used to be the wall and exploded in a shower of pebbles. "I don't think they're having the same issue," Sain said. He leaned up and took a couple more shots and then sank back down before the two thugs could get a good shot in. "Hey," he said looking around. "Where's Lyndis?"

Kent looked down where they'd come from, but only Mark and Bob were there, hiding behind rubble while the two detectives fired at the thugs. Back the other way, Kent barely had enough time to see the ends of deep green hair disappearing into the cave before another shower of pebbles rained over him.

"That impetuous girl! She ran into the caves!" he shouted. "Mark, Bob! Go make sure she's okay. We'll cover you."

The two started making their way toward the cave entrance. Kent nodded at Sain and the two popped up and ran the opposite way, firing shots off and drawing the thug's fire.

* * *

**Inside the Katti Caves…**

The firestorm going on outside quickly became muted once she was inside the crystal cave. A pathway had been cleared for pilgrims through the sharp, jagged edges of the field of crystals. Some were huge and thick and reached from one wall to the opposite like a metal beam stuck by an idiot engineer through two decks of a ship. Most of the crystals ranged from a couple inches to just below her neck.

Walking through the caves was always a bit of a mystical journey for her. Normally, she'd take time to watch the sparkling lights bouncing here and there, flitting from one crystal to the next like dancing sprites. But now she had a mission, even if it was one she'd taken on herself. She wouldn't be able to look her grandfather in the face if she had let this atrocity happen to the Katti and done nothing to stop it.

Since there was only one path, it wasn't long before she found who she was looking for. Two thugs stood on either side of an arched entry way. Beyond, she remembered, was the Sanctum of Swords, where the Katti both rested and awaited their owner to retrieve them.

This area was normally only entered by the head bishop of the St. Elimine Mission guarding the Katti. Where the two thugs stood now was a cleared out area of crystal so that it was safe for pilgrims and parishioners to gather for prayer. The cleared away crystal had even been fashioned into several benches to sit on while in prayer.

As soon as they saw her, the two thugs activated their vibro-axes. Lyn swallowed and looked around for some kind of weapon. Naturally, a broken hunk of crystal was the only object available. Hefting it was easier than she thought, but she found the cudgel heavier than any sword she'd ever used as she gave it a few test swings.

"Bring it on girly," one of the thugs said. "Hahahaha."

Without waiting, Lyn lifted the crystal above her head and took two steps forward. The thugs, having expected her to attempt to hit them with it, didn't expect what came next. The Lyn swung forward and let go.

The one she threw the crystal at didn't realize what was about to happen and then-BAM! Down went the thug one with a bloody new hole in his skull. The second thug, quicker on his feet, rushed Lyn.

"You'll pay for that, you bitch!" he roared as he swung at her. She jumped back, but tripped over one of the crystals sticking out of the floor. The thug took that moment to attack, swinging his axe down in what would have been the end…

…if Bob hadn't planted both of his feet onto the thugs' face in a double kick. The blow only managed to knock the hulking thug back, but it was enough to save Lyn. Mark appeared next to her and helped her back up while Bob started dodging and weaving between the thug's attacks.

"Why you… Stay still so I can hitcha!" yelled the bandit. He continued to swing in futility as Bob jumped, hopped, and then pranced about like a playful kitten in between the big man's swings and thrusts. "Where the hell did you learn to move like that? Stay still damn it!"

It took Mark several seconds to realize, distracted as he was by Bob's fight, that as soon as he'd helped Lyn to her feet she'd disappeared. He looked back toward the entrance, but she wasn't going that way either. And it was clear that the battle outside wasn't going too well since the number of flashing lights had increased.

"Bob," Mark shouted. "I hate to interrupt your fun, but Lyn's gone again and things don't look good outside. Could you, possibly, I don't know, hurry up with this one?"

"Why don't you get in here and lend me a hand then?" Bob asked as he dodged several more heavy swings from the thug. The green blade missed just missed his face by a good few inches, giving him a prime view of the grime built up on the weapon end. "You got a dirty axe." The thug took this as a taunt and redoubled his efforts to try and hit Bob, which didn't make any difference.

"Uh… yeah, no thanks," Mark said. He took a step back and crossed his arms as he watched the fight. "Physical labor and I don't mix well. We had a falling out a while back. It's all on you, buddy."

"Oh," Bob said, rolling his eyes. "They doesn't _mix_ well. I suppose it's time to stop playing then." Bob hopped back out of the thug's range and bared his teeth. The air around him began to roil and waver as energy built up and skittered about as static electricity in Bob's fur. Muscles bulked, his jaw elongated, and his fur grew longer.

* * *

**Inside the Sanctum of Swords...**

Lyn took a deep breath as she left Bob and Mark to deal with the last thug. She it didn't take her long to realize that he could most certainly handle that big hulking man. Maybe he'd remembered some moves since the fight with the pirate on _The Lorca_ a week ago. In either case, it allowed her the time to pursue the true villain of this attack on the Katti, Glass.

The mercenary swordsman wasn't hard to find. In fact, he was standing with his arms crossed while he leaned against a two foot tall stone altar with his head down. She hadn't been inside of the sanctum before, so had no idea if Glass had taken the Katti yet or if he was just waiting for someone to come in and challenge him.

"I was wondering when you'd arrive," Glass said, his voice clear in the small chamber. "My employer's tactician selected several candidates. He was quite accurate when he placed his faith in you, Lyndis om Lorca."

Lyn gasped. "H-How do you know who I am? Who are you? Why did you come here? If you think you can get away with stealing the Katti, then you're sorely mistaken."

Glass smiled at her and stepped to the side. Behind him were two swords standing vertically. They were both Katana, one longer than the other. They both had the tips of their blades stuck into the altar.

The moment she laid eyes on their blades she felt a part of her she hadn't known was there cry out for joy. It felt as if looking at them she was greeting a long old friend she hadn't known she had. And strangely enough, she could swear that she felt the same from the swords.

"I see you both know each other," Glass said. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"What?" Lyn frowned. "How? What? I don't understand."

"All in due time," Glass said, a knowing smile on his face again. "I am afraid you'll have to defeat me for the answers though I can tell you my name is Glass. As for your ultimatum, no, I hadn't the inclination of ever stealing these swords. They don't recognize me anymore. Rather, I'm here to ensure you are worthy. But enough questions." Glass unsheathed his sword from his back, and activated the Vibro-blade. The Core Bar hummed as the particles were excited into forming a deep red blade around it.

The light from the Vibro-sword filled the cavern with red light, lending it an ominous, dark atmosphere. Lyn shivered, but steeled her resolve. She was relieved that Glass wasn't there for the swords, but now he was after her. This was easier for her to deal with, oddly enough, than possibly having let the sacred swords fall into evil hands.

"Now, Lyndis om Lorca," Glass said as he brought his broadsword to bear. "Prepare to meet your destiny."

Lyn rolled forward into the room when Glass rushed her. As soon as she got to her feet, she had to jump to the side when the red sword smashed down and shattered the floor she was standing on. Before she could think of what to do next, Glass' fist was in her face.

Knocked back from the blow, she stumbled and felt her back hit the altar. When she pulled her hand away from her face, she saw blood. Glass gave his sword a tug and hefted his sword one handed, impossible by most untrained men due to the weight and the vibration frequency, and pointed it at her.

"Good reflexes, I suppose," he said. "However, you are woefully under powered and too slow on the up take. The only reason you aren't dead right now is because you're lucky."

Lyn glared. "Oh really?" she said. She knew now that Glass was clearly a level above her skill level. Ignoring her instinct to get the hell out of there, she said, "I think it's because you're not as good as you think you are. Some great swordsman you are." What the hell was she thinking?

Glass shook his head, disappointed. Then he spun around and made a very, very fast spinning slash right at her head. Lyn barely had a chance to duck before the loudly vibrating blade hummed passed her scalp. She could feel the heat of the blade as it went by and smelled several singed hairs immediately afterword.

She was going to die at this rate. She wanted, needed to fight back, but she didn't have a weapon. All she could do is dodge. What to do? What to do?

"Stop thinking," Glass shouted as he ceased his spin with the sword over his right shoulder, stepped forward with his left foot, and brought his sword back the other way. Lyn threw herself to the side to avoid the attack which gouged a five inch deep, ten inch long gash into the floor. "Use your instincts."

"Shut up and fight me," Lyn shouted as soon as she got back to her feet. No, that's not what she meant! Why was she saying these things? Had she lost her mind?

Glass shook his head and dashed toward her. Lyn feigned left and then somersaulted forward. Glass swung up with this sword and batted at Lyn mid-flight with the flat of the blade. She screamed from the searing pain of the vibro-blades' contact as she was sent sailing across the room where she landed in a heap behind the altar.

"You can't defeat me," Glass said. His voice was flat, but he said that as if he was stating a fact he'd just read from a book. He swung his sword around so that he was holding the blade in front of him. "Why don't you just give up and go home. Or I could send you to meet your family in the afterlife. You're choice."

"Ugh… I swear…"

"Hmm?" Glass gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands again and shifted into a neutral stance. "Speak up, I can't hear the words of a weak Sacean who doesn't know when to quit, how to take advice, and clearly hasn't inherited Hanon's legacy."

"I said…" Lyn's right hand appeared on the altar, and then her left, and finally she pulled herself up to a standing position. Her legs were shaking, but she forced past that to stand. If she was going to die, she'd die standing on her feet. Not cowering behind an altar begging for life or running away. "I swear, on the name of my family, on the blood and honor of the Lorca, I will defeat you so soundly the dragons won't be able to find all your pieces."

Glass chortled, mocking amusement at the beaten up, bloody, and disheveled young woman gasping for breath. Lyn narrowed her eyes further and climbed up onto the altar and prepared to leap at Glass. Having the upper ground, of course, being her plan. Maybe she could do what Bob had done with the brute outside the Sanctum.

As soon as she leaped, Glass stopped his laughter, his face suddenly serious as he brought his sword up above his head horizontally. Confusion filled her mind as she saw two katana blades screaming down at Glass' head.

It was like they both had appeared in her vision. Seeing the Katti was the last thing she expected. What were they doing there?

And then they clashed, the Katti and the Vibro-sword. Glass' arms buckled for a moment before he roared and pushed her back. Stumbling back, her head swimming from her previous injuries now that her rage induced high was dissipating, she couldn't stop the horizontal slash Glass made.

Her eyes widened as she experienced a searing pain in her abdomen like she'd never felt before. The Katti fell from her hands as she fell backwards and hit her head on the altar. Her skull bounced once and then darkness took her.

Glass, his face blank, looked down on the girl as he de-activated his sword. He swung the long device around and sheathed it behind his back. Then he bent down and stretched a hand out toward the longer, Sol Katti.

His finger scant inches from the blade, a whispering wind filled the air and a snap of electricity stretched out from the blade to Glass' hand. He pulled his hand back before anymore bolts of electricity could attack him. Rubbing his now numb fingers, Glass stood back up and stepped back.

"I see you're still rejecting me," he said. "Fine, have it your way. Choose this mongrel girl over me. We both know she's not long for life. Even if she survives this encounter, she won't survive the coming storm. And when she's dead, I'll come back. I always come back. And then you'll finally be mine again."

Glass spun around and walked away from the bleeding out Lyn and the two Katti sprawled on the floor by each of her hands. Sirens by now had filled the caverns and all sounds of battle had ceased. Footsteps echoed inside the caves as police filed into the Sanctum.

As soon as one officer saw Lyn, he lifted his arm up and activated the holographic gauntlet display. "Central, this is Officer 83. Send med-air evac to the Katti ruins. We have a woman in critical condition. Scanning her vitals now for evac team."

The officer held his hand out toward Lyn and a wide beam of light scanned over her body. Once the scan stopped, the officer pulled his arm back and punched a few holographic buttons. Lyn's vitals appeared on the screen, indicating her age, weight, height, body mass, muscle fitness, and a soft beep indicating heartbeat. Blood pressure was falling fast and something needed to be done about the hole in her gut before she bled out. Oxygen levels per quart were in the green, but were also falling, meaning her lungs were losing capacity somehow as well. Several other damaged organs and bones were pointed out on the display as well.

"Be advised, evac will be there in two minutes, emergency life sustenance required," a mechanical voice announced.

The officer shook his head as he bent down and began moving Lyn into a flat position on the ground. As he began doing what the holographic display on his gauntlet told him to do, he said, "Honey, I don't know what you did to deserve this. If you survive… well, miracles do happen, right?"

* * *

**A/N: And that's all folks, for this chapter anyway. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it was getting kind of long and this was a natural cut off point. Fear not, by next Wednesday, this cliffhanger will be resolved.**

**I know that this story is supposed to have lots of mechs and stuff in it, and it does, but I just haven't gotten to that part yet. I really really want to incorporate the martial aspects of fighting, such as swordplay and stuff, and mechanized space warfare. Hopefully you can forgive me this small delay in getting to the mechanized parts. Fear not, they _are_ coming. For now, though, I have to figure out how faster than light travel works in this universe... I'm not sure if I want to hand wave it with applied phlebotinum or go the more scientific, physics grounded route. What do you good readers think?**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Fanatics, Pirates, and Batshitinsane villains, oh my! Oh, and Lyn has to escape Bulgar... during an invasion. Shouldn't be too hard...**

* * *

**Constructive criticism and comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading.**


	10. Escaping Death

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_The Katti's Chosen_

* * *

"_In space, beware the shadows shifting in the dark._"

* * *

**Planet Shou'da, Bern Expansion, Elibean Space**

Glass awoke from his light doze when the transport he was in finally emerged from hyper-space. The long flight between systems in the Bern Expansion was part of the reason only Bern or Eturia could lay claim to the area. No one else had the resources to patrol such large areas in the Elibean Space.

Glass rubbed his eyes and stood as the transport's inertia pulled at his right side. The craft, in his mind's eye, was banking right as it lined up for approach to the landing platform on an asteroid. Planet Shou'da wasn't unique in having an asteroid belt, but it was extremely isolated and that made it perfect for what Glass' Master wanted it for.

Moments later, the transport extended landing struts from inside its oblong hull and gently touched down onto the landing platform. It was one of five similar platforms that sat embedded in a small valley like space on the large, hollowed out asteroid. Had Glass cared to glance out the portal during approach, he would have seen the entire special body covered with pinpricks of light, dozens of rows and columns of windows giving only a glimpse into the interior.

Walking off of the transport gangway, Glass was stopped by four men wrapped head to toe in black cloth. Only their glowing golden eyes were visible through small open holes in the cloth. None showed any emotion, but looking into those eyes was still unnerving for Glass. It was like they had no souls and were seeking to suck his own out every time he looked.

"The Master was not expecting your arrival," one of the cloaked men said. "Due in… five weeks, you were. To report on your progress. Is your arrival a sign of success?"

Glass nodded. Hardened swordsman as he was, even he was struggling to keep his mouth from curling in disgust from looking into the strange man's eyes. "Yes," he said. "Though I don't believe he would appreciate secrets of this caliber being shared with lowly guards. I will see him personally."

"You're sword," said another of the cloaked men. He held out his hand and waited. "The Master has declared a weapons ban."

"As you wish," Glass said. He wasn't too upset about this, since he wasn't stupid enough to only have one sword on him. There were also other reasons not to be concerned. "Just don't push any of the buttons. The Master doesn't wish to clean up more of his minions off the wall." Glass grinned in small triumph at provoking a reaction from the cloaked man as he unsheathed his vibro-sword from his back and placed it into the man's waiting hand.

"Follow me," the first cloaked man said. He turned and appeared to hover away as his black cloak consumed all sound and sight of his feet. Glass repressed a shiver and followed. Good as he was, even he would be hard pressed to fight a man who made no sounds of movement and blended in with the darkness. There was a good possibility that he'd lose that battle.

The cloaked man stepped onto a platform with a railing mounted onto a monorail that ran the distance of the landing platforms and entered the asteroid interior through a tunnel. Glass leaned against the railing as the platform's motor whined louder and he and the cloaked man started moving. He watched, bored, as the Aero-barrier surrounding the landing platforms disappeared from view when the platform entered the tunnel.

They were in darkness for several seconds, air whipping through the black cloak and Glass' hair. Then the platform emerged from the tunnel into a wide open space, revealing the gigantic hollow interior of the asteroid. Long metal walkways stretched from one side of the interior to the other and the entire space was illuminated by the man lights on the many floors. More monorail platforms zipped about as other men in black cloaks went about doing the Master's business.

Eventually, the platform Glass was on shifted onto a that looped around the interior of the asteroid in a downward spiral. The platform skipped all the off ramps as it continued on its way to the belly of the base. When it finally reached the bottom, the platform slowed to a halt next to the dock where almost a dozen black cloaked men stood.

Glass ignored how all their golden eyes fixed onto him and waited for the platform to fully stop. Then he stepped off and brushed passed the cloaked men. He was fully aware that nearly half of the men from the platform followed in his wake, despite not hearing or seeing their movement.

The dock led to a landing where a stone building was carved from the very rock of the asteroid itself. The building was cut to make it appear to be one of the many ancient temples scattered about the galaxy. This one, glass knew, was not one of those, but rather a fairly decent imitation.

Ascending the wide steps to the entrance of the temple led to the open doors of the building itself. Grand columns stood on either side of the door, as if guarding it. Relief sculptures telling of hard work, death, and war could be seen on the crenulations.

Inside the temple was just one room that took up the whole of the interior of the space. Enormous pots vats of some substance Glass didn't quite recognize blazed brightly and gave the raised dais, upon which a man sitting in a simple stone throne, a shadowed brooding appearance. There was also chanting reverberating through the air, dark and ominous. It sent small chills down Glass' spine.

The man on the throne had a hood around his head, revealing nothing of his face in the shadows cast by the blazing torches. The only thing that Glass could see inside of the hood was a single azure eye with a glint of madness in it. At the very least, Glass wasn't so intimidated by this man as he was of the golden eyed men. There was just something not quite human about them.

"Glass," rasped the Master from his throne, "I feel you've come because of your mission. I can assume that because you don't have them with you that you either gave up or they chose another. So then, what do you have to report about the Katti and their new wielder?"

"You're going to have to tell me how you do that sometime," Glass said. He crossed his arms as he looked up at the Master. "Honestly, I hadn't even said anything and you already knew why I was here. Why did I even bother coming?"

The Master's single eye shrank to a pupil as he stood from his throne. With the movement of his cloak, the Master's face was revealed in the firelight. He was a man, clearly, but his right eye was covered with a grey cloth, an intricate blood red script and symbol painted over where his eye would have been.

"Why I know what I know should be obvious," the Master said. He took slow, steady steps forward toward Glass. His single eye, still wild with madness, was focused on Glass. "I care not for your petty emotions. Nor do I care for your insignificantly trivial concern for travel or comfort. _I_ am the Master here."

By this point, the Master was nose to nose with Glass. Glass, unable to look away, or move for that matter, could only stare into that single madding eye. For a brief moment he felt like his mind was slowly dissolving into nothingness. For that brief moment, he wished for nothing but to slit his own throat, to escape the maddening sea of infinite chaos inside the Master's eye.

But that ended abruptly when the Master pulled away and turned around. Glass fell to his knees and gasped for air as he struggled to keep from passing out. By the time he was able to concentrate on more than his own survival, the Master had returned to his throne and his face was hidden from the light again, save for that eye.

"Lest you forget, _Master_," Glass said, sneering as he stood again. "I used to kill people like you for a living. And I slept like a baby at night, too."

"Then it is a boon to me that our benefactor sees fit to place more faith in my skills to carry out his plans than you," Nergal sneered right back. "Now, make your report, or I will be forced to rip your soul from your body and sacrifice it to Chaos."

Glass grunted. "_Yes_, the Katti have chosen. A girl, of the expanse, with blood ties to Lycia, just like it was foretold. She's wields both blades as easily as I once wielded them and yes, they resonate with her spirit. There is no doubt, she is the Katti Chosen at this time."

"I suppose your failure at retrieving the blades was to be expected," the Master said. "Don't assume that I hadn't foreseen this outcome in my planning. I've already set in motion other plans to either capture her, or distract her for years. Even if I cannot have the Katti, they will not be available for the apocalypse."

"Hmph." Glass grimaced and spit. "May the universe burn."

The master grinned, his one eye a single dot again. "Yes. Burn it will. Hahahaha! Hahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The laughter echoed out from the temple and up into the rest of the asteroid. The sinister guffaws echoed about the interior for minutes on end. As the multitude of black cloaked men heard the malevolent sound, their eyes glowed all the more brighter, as if they burned in hatred of all they saw.

* * *

**Bulgar City General Hospital, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

A man stood over her. She couldn't see him clearly, only his silhouette and the fiery orbs of his eyes. Behind him lay the smoldering ruins of a once great city, creatures of some kind running amok over the rubble. The man didn't move. Instead he stared at her with those eyes of fire, like he was focusing a laser on her soul. No matter how hard she tried, she could not look away. A pain grew in her head until she cried out. This only made the man grin, revealing dazzling white teeth.

"_You'll be handing that over to me now, I think,_" the man said, his voice sickeningly sweet. She knew that she didn't want to, that if this man got what she had, the universe would end. She'd die. But she couldn't stop herself from walking forward. "_That's right. Soon, it'll be all over. Just hand it over to me._"

She stretched her hand out, palm up, holding out a medallion of some sort that was covered in blue flames. This fire emblem wasn't burning her skin, instead it felt cool, like water running down a stream. Her arm and body trembled as she held the flaming emblem out toward the man. She stop shaking, not matter how much she tried. Just like she couldn't stop staring into the man's flaming eyes.

Just as the man reached out to grab the flaming medallion, a loud beeping penetrated the fear that had fogged her mind. The man grinned at her again, seemingly leering at her despite how he was currently dissolving into blackness. And then all that was left in her mind was the beeping.

Lyn came into herself slowly. She felt woozy, like she felt after sleeping too much. And it didn't help that she'd had _that _dream again.

She tried to sit up, but something was strapped to her wrists and she couldn't move very far. Maybe she'd gotten wrapped up in her sheets again… or so she thought until she opened her eyes and found she wasn't in her room at all.

She was on a bed with bars on either side. Around the bed were curtains colored a very ugly green. And the reason she couldn't move very far, as she found when she looked down, was because she had hand cuffs and wrist straps attaching her to the bed.

"Wh-What's going on?" she asked. She tried to sit up again, and struggled against the bonds holding her down. But it was to no avail and she fell back onto the mattress in a huff.

The curtains were suddenly drawn back and she found herself confronted by four people. Two women who wore light green smocks similar in shade to the ugly curtain. A man who wore a long white coat with a Stave Patch on his shoulder, indicating he was a doctor. And another man who wore the standard blue and brown security uniform from the Space Port.

"Finally awake, are you?" asked the doctor as he grabbed her arm and pressed into her wrist. At the same time he lifted his arm and watched a holographic clock tic away. At the same time the two nurses began checking holographic readouts at the foot of the bed. The security guy just stood there, looking bored.

"What's going on?" Lyn asked. "Why am I tied up? Where am I? Where are my friends? Tell me what's going on!"

"Calm yourself, young lady," the doctor said sternly. "You're lucky that you haven't ripped your wounds open again with all that struggling." The nurses finished doing whatever they set out to do with the holographic displays and left. The doctor nodded to himself and dropped Lyn's wrist.

"She's as healthy as a horse, I'd say," the doctor said as he turned to the security officer. "Aside from her residual wounds, she's is in good health."

"When will she be ready for transport?" the security officer asked. "The trial is this evening."

_Transport? Trial? What are they talking about?_

"She should be ready by then," the doctor said as he walked away and pulled the curtain back closed. Lyn noticed that even though the doctor left, there were two feet still visible under the curtain. The security officer must be waiting for her to finish healing. But healing from… that gut wound?

She looked down at her midsection and focused on that part of her body. It felt normal, nothing was out of place, and she wasn't looking at the hole she remembered Glass putting there. _That must be the healed injury that the doctor was talking about._

Why wouldn't they answer any of her questions? Also, the doctor and nurses didn't want to look too closely at her the whole time, as if they were doing everything at arms length. Were they afraid of her? Was that why she was strapped down?

After giving the restraints another once over, she realized there really wasn't anything she could do. That realization left a sour taste in her mouth and the growing heat of anger in the pit of her stomach. They had to be blaming her for everything that had happened since she arrived on Bulgar. She wasn't the one responsible for being kidnapped; it's not like she asked those men to single her out. It was her granduncle's doing.

And then the buffoons at the port arrested her friends without asking anything and just threw them in jail. Sure, escaping was bad but, she didn't blame them for escaping to come save her. How could she?

And now they were going to put her on trial. What did she do besides attempt to save two relics that were held as sacred by all Saceans? What did her friends do that deserved treatment like this?

None of this made any sense. The more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. One thing was certain though; she had to find a way out of this. Maybe she'd have to escape just like her friends. But then what about _The Lorca_? It was probably on lock down just like she was.

_One thing at a time,_ she told herself. She slumped backwards into the bed as a headache from all the thinking pounced.

* * *

Outside of the hospital stood two figures dressed in dull brown cloaks. With the hoods up to hide their faces, they were generally ignored by passing vehicles and pedestrians alike. While they stood, they faced the hospital, watching people come and go.

"She's in there," one of the robed figures said, the deep baritone notes of the voice indicating it was a man. "I tracked her here after the med-evac took her."

"That fool of a magistrate plans to assign all the blame for the uproar on her and her companions," the other one said, voice a high soprano indicating it was a woman. "We cannot let that happen. Lady Katti must be rescued. Also, the Bishop has voiced an opinion that someone might be paying them off, though he has no proof."

"I suppose that is why his holiness sent The Faithful," the man said.

"Yes, The Faithful," the woman agreed. "And what of the sacred blades? The buffoons didn't just leave them in the cavern, did they?"

"If only they were so dense," the man said, voice tinged with irritation. "It would have made thing easier. But it is not so bad. The security took them to the evidence lock up at their central station, along with Lady Katti's companions. The Faithful has assured us of success, though."

"Good," the woman said. "Then before the night is out, the Lady Katti will be whisked away to safety. What shall become of her companions?"

"The Bishop said they are to either become her first retainers or her first sacrifices," the man said with a shrug. "No matter in the end. By then, Lady Katti will be safely hidden from all that seek to harm her."

The two fell silent. Within moments, both had vanished. Anyone who saw them standing there before passed the strange disappearance off as them having never been there to begin with.

* * *

_**Raptor's Cry**_**, Taliver Asteroid Field, Sacean Expanse**

A small, balding man wearing a very dirty pair of overalls that had several holes ripped into it, scurried down the dingy corridor as fast as his wobbly legs could carry him. He dodged his big, hulking brethren as easily as his fingers swiped their wallets as he passed. True, that wasn't his current reason for hurrying, but it couldn't hurt to look out for oneself while on the job either. Especially because work for a thief normally dried up fairly quickly.

At the end of the long corridor he was traveling was a standing open doorway. The room there was the bridge of _Raptor's Cry_, the Mothership Class Flagship of the Taliver Armada. That was the thief's final destination.

It wasn't taller than any other of the decks on the ship, but the room walls were covered in projector screens for a panoramic view of the space around the massive ship. In the center of the circular room was the captain's chair, which had a holographic tactical display built into the right arm and the 'Captain's' computer console on the left, on a raised dais. Around the chair, sunk into the floor, three rings of computer consoles radiated out. The inner most ring contained the Communication and Fleet Coordination consoles. In the next ring contained the navigation, propulsion, and engineering consoles. The outer most ring contained the computer consoles that controlled all of the different defense systems built into the massive hull of the _Raptor's Cry_.

Constructing the _Raptor's Cry_ was no mean feat for the pirates. Any such vessel of Mothership or Dreadnaught class size required the resources and manpower only Bern, Lycia, or Eturia had in this region of space. But ever since the man that the thief was approaching had come to the Taliver Asteroid Belt with his big ideas and persuasive speeches, things had changed. The gangs of bandits and pirates hiding out there started grouping together, working for a cause greater than their own greed. After gaining that much trust, that man pooled the resources and man power that was available and stole what wasn't, in order to start this project.

Admittedly, the thief and everyone else knew that the benefits of amassing such a large hoard meant that they could raid anyone they wanted and beat back the militaries that might try to fight them. Heck, the visions of grandeur alone given to them by that man were worth following just to see if it could be done.

That man, whose real name was Fom Ottis, sat on the bridge in the captain's chair staring out at space while the men at the stations around him continued the work of breaking in the _Raptor's Cry_. On this bridge, and to the rest of the Taliver, he was known simply as King. King of the Pirates, as some drunken buffoon had coined him. In the end, pirates and brigands being the simple folk they are, that name stuck.

"What have you to report, thief?" the King asked, never looking away from the display of stars. "I assume it is important from the amount of sweat on your brow. You never run that far that fast unless you've stolen something."

"My apologies, my lord," the thief said. "We just intercepted a message from Bug of the Ganelon Mercenary Unit 3. It had to do with the Katti's wielder. It would seem that one of their men, Glass, was attempting to steal them, but a girl got there first and Glass fled the scene. The rest of Mercenary Unit 3 was slain by the girl and her companions."

The King was silent for several long, excruciating minutes. At long last, he stood and motioned toward the man sitting at the communication's station. "Give me a fleet wide audience," the King said. When the communication's officer nodded, the King spoke.

"Fellow men of the Taliver Armada," the King began. "Let it be known that your hard work has paid off, and now we stand ready to conquer richer lands. None shall be spared the wrath of the Taliver!"

"For the Hoard!" roared the pirates in all the hundreds of vessels floating around the _Raptor's Cry _back to the King.

"Yes!" the King crowed triumphantly. "Our first target will be Bulgar! It is there we shall make our mark on the galaxy. None shall soon forget the name Taliver after we have ravaged that planet."

"For the Hoard!"

"For the Hoard!"

The King smiled as he sat back down. The shouts from the hundreds of ships continued for over an hour. The thief watched all of this curiously, but remained silent himself, even when the bridge crew erupted in chanting as well. Thieves like him weren't known for their revelry and doing things loud or obnoxious. Obnoxious thieves got caught, which was bad for business.

"Set course for Bulgar," the King said. "Alert the fleet and prepare for the jump. Remind the more idiotic captains of the spatial wake a ship of this size makes. We don't need our own men destroying themselves mid jump."

"Aye, aye, my lord," one of the communication's officer's said. By now the chanting had died down, though some were still going at it with gusto.

"And you, thief, get back to work," the King said.

"Yes, my lord," the thief said. He quickly slipped from the bridge. The King clasped his hands together in front of him and rested his chin on them. Amusement dance in his eyes, which oddly enough, the pupils seemed as if they were formed from black flames.

* * *

**Port Bulgar Security Center Lock-up, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

"These idiots are beginning to try my even my patience," Mark said. He paced back and forth in his cell as he spoke, shaking his fist in the air as he went. "Who in their right minds believes the words of some… some cutthroat, murderous bastards over actual, law abiding citizens. We didn't do any of this! It's insane!"

"What was it you said last time?" Sain asked from his cell. He lay on his back on the floor with his feet propped up on the wall and his arms splayed out on either side of him. "I think it was, '_Shouting like a drunken outlaw who just made payday won't change my situation, so far as I know_,' or something like that."

Mark ignored Sain and ran to the front of his cell. He gripped them with his hands and shouted, "Do you know who I am? I'm the greatest damn tactician in the galaxy! I don't care how long it takes; I'm going to get out of here. And when I do, I'll come back here and make you wish you'd listened to me! Do you hear me?"

The guard standing directly in front of his cell continued staring at Mark, unflinchingly watching him shout right into his face. Mark settled into a glaring contest, which he quickly lost when he blinked. "Shit. I lost the game!"

"You realized that after what we did last time, it was unlikely they'd let us stay in here unobserved," Bob said from his cell. He flicked his tail in annoyance from his seat against the far wall. "Frankly, they're smarter than you give them credit for, though perhaps only in a small way."

"I'm more worried about Lyndis," Kent said, finally speaking up. He sat against the back wall of his cell, much like Bob, but appeared more introspective with his head down. "I know they told us she'd survived, that they took her to the hospital to treat her wounds, but she was really bloody when she was pulled out of the caverns."

The room fell silent after that. Mark grunted his frustration as he slumped down onto the bench in his cell. Slowly, painfully, the seconds turned into hours.

And then the thick metal door at the end of the cell block opened with a metal on metal screech. Everyone got to their feet when they saw Lyn being marched into the cell block by two men, her hands bound behind her back.

"Lyn!" Bob said. She was dressed in her long blue dress, but it appeared to have been cleaned and patched up by someone. There was a dark patch over her abdomen, but the red of blood had been removed. Lyn looked at Bob as she passed his cell and said something in Sacean. He nodded back to her, his face suddenly sad as he replied.

"You know," Sain said as Lyn was put into a cell several spaces away from everyone else. "Chicks love a guy who's multi-lingual. I should learn a new language."

Kent scowled. "Is that really all you can think about, Sain?"

"Oh my," Sain said, feigning innocence, "you believe I've abandoned my duty, my dour companion." Sain straightened up, placed his right hand over his heart, and lifted his left hand into the air. "I solemnly swear that I shall pursue all beautiful women with the tenacity of a Goldoan Bull Dragon, so help me Goddess." After saying that, Sain cracked an eye and peeked at the stewing Kent one cell over. "Besides," Sain said, cracking a smile, "whatever else would I think about at a time like this? It isn't like we've got any pressing engagements we can attend under current circumstances."

"I don't know," Kent said, his voice as flat as his gaze was burning while he watched his partner. "Perhaps attempt to figure a way out of here and back to Caelin. The Governor doesn't have much time, remember. Unless, of course, your _vow_ is more important than your damn duty."

Fate, having been a cruel mistress to this bedraggled group of star-crossed companions, decided that tossing small stones into the pond of life wasn't as fun as big, honking boulders. Said big, honking boulder took the form of a large explosion that rocked the entire facility. Everyone in the prison block was thrown to the floor as the lights flickered once, twice, and then died completely. Emergency chemical lights built into the floor immediately flared to life and the cell block became bathed in dull orange light.

"Is everyone okay?" Kent shouted, once he got to his feet. "What in the hell was that?"

At that moment, another explosion rocked the building, followed by the very characteristic fast stuttering of a rapid fire plasma gun. Piercing whistles appeared and then went lower in pitch until they ended in a fantastic boom that once more rocked the cell block.

"It sounds like a war zone out there!" Mark shouted above the noise. "What the hell is going on?"

"Pirates!" The door burst open and one of the security officers stood there, covered in blood and dust. He was breathing hard and leaned on the door handle for support. "The Taliver Armada is here! Man your sta-Urrrgh!"

The man didn't get a chance to finish whatever he was saying as a glowing blade of white pierced his neck. He gurgled and choked on his own blood as he fell to the floor. The other security officers rushed forward, but then the one who cut down the first man stepped into the cell block. In several seconds of quick hand jabs and the application of a short yellow Vibro-sword, all seven of the guards assigned to watch the group, plus the man with the warning, were on the ground, bleeding out or dead.

"Go with God, my poor brethren of justice," the assailant said. Despite the amount of blood spatter that had resulted from the fight, the man's pristine white and powder blue robes looked clean as clean could be. His vibro-sword was gone, most likely hidden in his robe again. Most striking about the man was his long blond hair and very fine facial features. If not for having heard his voice, everyone still alive in the cell block would have thought he was a she.

"I must apologize for the lateness of my arrival," the man said as another explosion rocked the building. A flash of firelight entered the door indicating how close the explosion was. "I'm afraid the men here were being paid off by your granduncle and the Taliver Pirates chose this time to assault Bulgar."

"Who are you," Kent asked as the building rocked again, but the explosion wasn't as loud. "And how do you know Ludgren is paying off the Bulgar Security Force?"

"Tut tut," the man said as he picked his way down the hallway to the first cell door. With a quick swipe of his hand, the lock had a smoldering hole in it. "I would tell you about my conversation with the man in charge here, but there are more pressing matters at hand. For now, it is highly recommended that we escape, with all due haste."

"Priest robes… Martial Arts… something about this seems familiar," Mark said as he pushed open the now unlocked cage door. He tried looking into his memory for some kind of answer, but none appeared. While the strange priest was 'unlocking' the other cells, he walked out into the hallway to gaze out the window at the chaotic scene enveloping Port Bulgar.

The sun was setting on the scene of hundreds of Mechs flying about in the air. Innumerable glowing rounds of plasma crisscrossed in the air. Vibro-weapons were slashing, slicing, and sometimes falling from destroyed mechs to crash into the houses and streets below.

"They won't last long," Mark said as everyone finally emerged from the cell block into the hallway. The sounds of battle, blasting propulsion engines, humming Vibro-weapons, the rat-tat of rapid fire plasma guns, were furious and angry. The defending forces still launching from the ground in Soldier Class mechs barely got engaged with the vastly more numerous Brigand and Pirate class mechs, with some Mercenary class mechs thrown in for good measure, before they were falling back to the ground in flames.

"I'm afraid I couldn't convince the Magistrate of Bulgar to let you go peacefully," the priest said, drawing attention from the carnage taking place outside.

"That doesn't appeared to have stopped you," Kent said. "Who are you and why are you helping us?"

"Who I am is not important, and neither is why I'm helping," the man said. "Just know that I'm not here to hinder your journey in anyway. For the time being, though, you may call me Lucius."

"Right, Lucius, it's not like we have a choice at this point." Bob said, voicing everyone's concerns. "In any case, we need to get to our ship and escape." He pointed up. "It's docked at the hanger."

"And we need to get our weapons and bags," Sain added as he began jogging down the hallway. Everyone quickly followed as another Soldier mech spiraled down to the ground in front of the Space Port in a ball of fire. "They should be in the same lock-up as last time, if we're lucky. Fortunately, it's on the way to the lobby."

"Sain," Mark shouted from the back of the group. "Lucius appears to be the only one armed. Let him lead, just in case we run into someone unpleasant." Lucius took that as his cue and bounded ahead of the group in three quick bounds. He was fast, Mark noted, very fast.

Lyn's eyes were narrowed as she ran beside Bob. The two of them were talking in Sacean, though from her expressions, Bob was butchering the language severely and she had to think hard to translate. Despite that, the two seemed to be communicating quite easily, which Mark noted as well.

* * *

**Planet Laramie Research Station, Sienna System, United Republic of Bern Space**

The vent cover in the dark control room fell from the ceiling vent and clattered about on the floor in the main control room of the research station some forty feet below. Seconds later two lithe forms, one half the size of the larger, who had long hair whipping behind them as they fell, dropped to the floor and landed in a crouch. The remained in the crouched position they landed in as the door at the back of the square room opened and flooded the dark room with light.

The two security guards, armed with plasma guns, from the hall entered the room and looked for the cause of the noise. As they moved slowly about the room, swinging their flashlights about the room, all they saw was dust and de-activated computer consoles. By the time they had made the circuit back to the door, their guns were holstered again.

"Damn place is haunted," one of the guards said as they both walked out the door.

"Not with that again," the other replied just as the door shut with a soft hiss.

As stillness and darkness filled the room again, the two lithe figure left the shadow and walked to the center of the room. Neither made any sound as they walked, their feet somehow landing perfectly silently. When they met up in the center, the taller held a finger to her lips and pointed to the central console where a holograph projector was placed, both off.

The smaller, wearing a face mask with glowing red eyes that allowed him to see in the infrared spectrum, turned and nodded. He moved quickly to the console and plugged a cable into an open Universal Data Port. The other end of the cable was plugged into his suit arm.

"Data downloading," Nils said quietly, barely above a mumble. He watched the data streaming down the computer screen projected into his goggles. "Approximately fifteen minutes."

Ninian, meanwhile, was at the door that the two guards had burst through. She'd attached her own suit to the door's console. "Good," she said back, mumbling herself. The suit's picked up the sound and amplified it when they spoke, so they heard each other clear as if they were shouting at each other. A orange holographic input console appeared in front of her and she began typing onto it. "The door will be sealed in a couple seconds. With this level of technology, they'll probably never break my algorithm. How's the data look?"

"Hmm…" Nils said as he read a few of the lines of information as it passed by his eyes. "It appears that the Black Fang is infiltrating every corner of Elibean society. Blackmailing those who are useful and replacing those who refuse to cooperate. I bet the President would love to have this- What's this? This is interesting…"

Ninian finished typing and the holographic keyboard disappeared. The lights in the room turned on and the door made a soft clicking as the 'emergency lockdown' engaged. Outside, the two guards pounded on the door a couple of times and started shouting. One of them, according to the thud, tried shooting the plasma shielded doorway. Ninian shook her head. There was a reason this place was the central control room, it was built to be a bunker in space, if it were involved in a space battle.

"What was that Nils?" Ninian asked, speaking in her regular voice. "I didn't hear you over these human's pathetic attempts of entering."

"Ninian," Nils said, excited. He pushed his face mask back as he activated the holographic projector and started digging through files on the console in front of him while the computer in his suit continued the download."Come look!"

Ninian moved silently next to her brother and scanned over the file he'd brought up. It was a memo from the mysterious 'Master' to all Black Fang members. The Katti had chosen and orders were now to capture on sight, kill if possible, capture preferable.

"Now that is interesting," Ninian said. "It's too bad we cannot communicate with Quantum from here. Pathetic human technology. I'm sure we'd get some new orders…"

Ninian let her thought trail off as she glanced at Nils. He had his face mask back down and was scanning the files as they downloaded. "Nils," she said, with a sigh. He was too oblivious yet. More training needed indeed. "Nils!"

"Huh!" Nils jumped and pulled his mask up to look at her. "I'm sorry. I couldn't find any more information on who the Katti is. There might have been a physical message with the electronic one that had more information, but it's not stored here. I-uh… what is it Ninian?"

"Nils," Ninian said quietly, "we aren't here to get excited over what we find, just to find it, and escape without being noticed. And as I was saying, if we could contact Quantum, I'm sure we would get new orders. Since we can not contact Quantum, a decision must be made as to what to do. Though it would appear you plan to follow this trail concerning the Katti, there are other trails that could be followed as well. So, what's your decision?"

Nils fell silent as he thought. Banging on the door broke his concentration and he glanced over at it. There was a steady thumping on the door. A dent was beginning to form as the metal was bashed out of shape.

"Nils, I'm waiting," Ninian said. "Remember, it's your test. You must decide what you will do, as all deep cover agents must."

"Right," Nils said. He turned away from the door and concentrated on his options. The best idea would be to retreat with the data they had and begin going through it, perhaps even reporting to Quantum for new orders. But sometimes, deep cover field agents weren't able to do that, and had to follow their own instincts to accomplish their missions and the greater goals of the Dragon Imperium. Undoubtedly, there were many very important leads on the Black Fang in this data, but the moment he'd laid eyes on the Katti memo, he got really excited.

Every dragon was taught the importance of the Sol and Mani Katti and the prophecy of the Katti. How the Chosen of the Katti would become a great protector of life and justice, as foretold by the Oracle Goddess, Ashunera. Along with that prophecy came the foretelling that the Dragons would play an important part in the Chosen of the Katti's life during a great battle against evil. Every little Dragon boy and girl pretended to be the Katti Chosen's guardian or warrior, or whatever imaginative title they gave themselves while playing.

"They're almost through the door," Ninian said. Her voice was cold like it always was and yet he could hear a mocking tone in it. In any case, she'd snapped him out of his internal debate. And his suit was beeping at him telling him the download was done. It was time to leave and choose.

"If the Katti really has Chosen someone," Nils said, "and the Black Fang are after whoever was chosen, then I think it would be in the Imperium's interests to make sure they fail at every turn. After all, the Black Fang are our enemy, and whatever hurts them, helps us. We must search out the Katti's Chosen."

Ninian nodded and smiled. "Very good, Nils. Though you took a bit too long to decide this time. Keep working on your situational awareness."

Nils nodded gravely as he took her words to heart. She was smiling, yes, but it wasn't friendly advice. It was a warning. 'Take too long again, and I'll kill you.' Yes, he nodded again, message received.

When the banging on the doors finally reached a crescendo, the poor metal panels gave up the ghost and fell into the room. They screamed with a whoosh and smashed into the ground with a loud crash. Five men, wielding plasma rifles and body armor, rushed passed the three men who'd bashed the door open with a door ram, in to the lightless room. Everything was where it was supposed to be. In the ruckus, no one noticed two shadows quickly slipping out of the room past everyone's backs.

* * *

**Bulgar Space Port Evidence Lock-up, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

Arriving at the evidence room wasn't as remotely difficult as it should have been. Kent reasoned that was more than ever likely because of the world wide attack by the pirates. Even as he and Sain retrieved their gear and luggage, and Mark his, there were at least seven thunderous, earth shaking explosions.

Everyone knew it was in their best interest to get out of there as quickly as possible. However, once everyone had their things and were about to leave, Lucius pulled Lyn aside and pointed to two katana neatly laid out on a table by themselves. He said something in Sacean, which after a glance at Bob and Lyn's faces, Kent assumed was fluent Sacean instead of the broken speak Bob used.

Lyn looked apprehensively at the swords and then said something back to Lucius. He shook his head and replied solemnly. Kent watched Bob frown, look back at the swords, and then back to Lyn. Then he added something to the conversation.

"Ever think that maybe we're missing something important when they talk in Sacean?" Mark asked from the doorway. He was continuing to glance up and down the hallway. Kent was relieved that he'd had the foresight to think of keeping a look out. His skills must really be rusty if he'd overlooked that.

"Somehow, I don't think we need words to explain what they're saying," Sain said. "Look at her. She looks sad, or maybe she's just afraid. Either way, she clearly wants nothing to do with those swords."

"I suppose we'll have to ask later," Kent said. "For now, we really should get out of here. Lucius, if you would please just grab the swords, we can talk to her about it lat-"

"No," Lucius said firmly and shook his head. "She has been chosen by the Katti. Only she may wield them. Or rather, they only want her to wield them. They're her responsibility now. It is not something to be taken lightly and she is…" Lucius paused as he searched for the right words. "She is accepting the reality of how drastically her future has changed," he said at last.

Another explosion rocked the building and dust particles as well as some small pebble sized rubble fell from a crack that had formed in the ceiling. Kent gave the ceiling a quick once over. It was most certainly _not_ going to last much longer in this battle. Not to mention that there's no telling if the space elevator was still operational. And even if it was, the hanger up top was most certainly under attack.

Lyn squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, marched up to the table and, hesitating only once, grabbed both of the Katti. In that instant her fingertips came into contact with the swords, there was a flash from the swords. The light filled the room for just a moment. Then it was gone, before anyone had a chance to blink.

"Well, now that we've got that out of the way," Mark said, as he and everyone else blinked a couple times to get the flash from their eyes, "I think we have a ship to catch. If you don't mind, I'd like to be on it, and out of here, before some pirates decide I'd look better with my head on a pike."

"What, did you piss the pirates off too?" Sain asked with a grin as they all left the evidence room. Mark grimaced but remained silent.

* * *

**Local Space, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

The King, Fom Ottis, watched from his seat on the bridge of the _Raptor's Cry_ as his forces invaded Bulgar's airspace. The resistance that the defense force was putting up was pathetic. True, they probably had better training, but the sheer number of pirates he had under his command could blot out the sky of the whole planet with their mechs. The defense force didn't stand a chance.

"My Lord," one of the communication's officers' said, raising a hand to grab his attention from the tactical display on his chair. When he glanced away from the holographic tactical display, the officer said, "Our men are reporting several carrier class ships leaving the large hangar in orbit. Though most are unarmed and easily boarded, there is one that has two mech units defending it as it makes its run past our front lines. A Myrmidon Class and a Magic Class of the Monk variety. They're destroying every unit that goes at them."

"Hmm…" The King turned back to his tactical display. He tapped a few of the control buttons and then watched as the picture of the battle taking place zoomed into one carrier with two mechs zooming about it. A squad of three Pirate mechs made a run on the ship, however as soon as they got close, the Myrmidon intercepted them and broke their formation, distracting the pirates while the Monk blasted them all with his Fusion Plasma.

"This is annoying indeed..." the King grumbled. "Though I suppose thinking beyond simple attack strategies is too much for many in the Armada." He fell silent as he thought. While he was thinking, another squad made a run, and met the same fate. In minutes, the ship would be out of the planet's gravity well and would be able to jump to hyper-space. Letting them escape would ruin his plans, meaning plan B would be in effect. Unfortunately, his personal options were limited since the _Raptor's Cry_ was observing the battle from the edge of the system.

"The fools are skilled, I'll give them that," the King said at last. As he spoke, he scrolled the image along the carrier's path and found a pirate squad of heavy frigates, seven of them, guarding the missions supply ships. "Sadly, fools will remain fools. Order the frigate squad guarding the supply ship to form up and take them out. No one shall escape our attack."

The King smiled as he continued to watch his tactical display while the officer relayed his commands. The frigates all moved about until they were in a wall formation and then they began advancing on the fleeing carrier. With only two mechs, that beat up old Sacean wreck didn't stand a chance against the high powered rail gun and missiles of the frigates.

The two sides advanced on each other. Then the frigates fired their missiles, which closed the distance twice as fast as the frigates. The King was about to turn his display back to the battle at large when he saw the Myrmidon transform.

Curiosity piqued, he watched the flight mode mech race toward the missiles. Not one to turn away from a train wreck, the King was a little disappointed when the Myrmidon wasn't destroyed. He didn't catch on to what was happening until the flight mode mech blasted past the much slower frigates.

His heart leaped into his throat when he realized that the Myrmidon had all the missiles locked onto it. The pilot was using his own missiles against him! Something wasn't right though. The Myrmidon's flight path was too far away from his frigates to hit them. Then he saw it, the Myrmidon was headed straight for the supply ship!

"Contact the supply ship!" the King shouted. "Tell them to get out of there."

The communication officers scrambled to do as their lord bid, but it was too late. The Myrmidon swooped over the hull of the supply ship and then hid behind it. The missiles lost their lock and continued straight on their path, right into the side of the supply ship. The supply ship went up in a bright ball of fire that quickly died in the vacuum of space.

Dirty deed done, the Myrmidon turned around and started back. When the Myrmidon made its move, the frigates had faltered, opening them to the attacks of the Monk. Now four of the frigates were destroyed and the last three were being engaged by the Myrmidon and the Monk as the carrier passed by uncontested. Moments later, the carrier picked up the two mechs and disappeared into hyper-space.

With the supply ship of that quadrant of the attack sphere destroyed, and none of the nearby supply ships capable of taking over its duties, a hole appeared in the pirate's offensive. The King watched, fists clenched while a raging inferno of anger built up inside of him, as the planet's defense force quickly took advantage of the new hole. It wouldn't be long before they had retaken the planet now, since they were better trained than the bumbling pirate idiots of the Armada.

"Order the retreat," the King ground out. "We'll be heading into Judgral Space now. Our training is complete. Time to start the real war."

Finished speaking, the King stood stiffly and stalked from the bridge into the adjoining living quarters that were reserved for him. Body rigid and fists held tightly together behind his back, the King stood at the large window viewport of the surrounding space and watched the stars twinkle. In his mind, despite knowing that this wasn't really a set back, considering Bulgar was just a training run, the King was swearing to hunt down the one responsible for the events that had just played out. As his imagination played out exactly how his revenge would take place, his pupils turned from brown human to blood red demonic and a grin stretched across his face.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is looooooong. It's over 9000... words. :D**

**This chapter went through several iterations before I settled on this. Initially, I had described Lyn and co fighting to escape, with a badass declaration by Lyn, a better description of Lucius' Monk-Fu, and so on. But as awesome as that would be, the scene just didn't fit. I don't know why, but I was bored with it. So I ended up making the little scene where Mark demonstrates his tactical genius, and Lyn her piloting capabilities when given direction. She's not the best pilot by a long shot, though. The only reason she pulled that stunt off was because she put her faith into Mark's strategy. She'll get better though, as will the others (of course).  
**

* * *

**Next Chapter: The League gathers new members as Lyn heads toward Caelin. Ludgren makes his another strike. A new face is introduced, along side his equally important blue haired brute of a friend/sparring partner.  
**

* * *

**Constructive criticism and comments appreciated. Thanks for reading.**


	11. Blind Luck

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_Searching For Home_

* * *

"_The enemy of my enemy is my friend._"

* * *

**Outer Space, Planet Bulgar, Sacean Expanse**

The exhilaration that flowed through Lyn's veins as she watched the support vessel explode in front of her was beyond anything she'd experienced before. She wasn't sure if she should be ecstatic that Mark's strategy had worked or that she'd actually survived the death defying feat. It wasn't every day someone told her to _let_ missiles lock onto her and then lead them on a wild goose chase.

_I shouldn't have survived that,_ she thought. _I really feel like I should be dead right now._

While the explosion wasn't flashy, due to the vacuum of space, the support vessel did disintegrate into hundreds of pieces that flew everywhere. Lyn brought her hands up to protect her head, and her mech copied her motion, creating a shield out of its two arms over the pilot canopy. She held her breath as shrapnel began bouncing off of the armor plating on her mech's arms.

"_Master Lyndis! Mark says you should help Mister Lucius take out the last of the missile frigates. He's already destroyed four. Oh! And he says we're going to be entering hyper-space as soon as you're both back on board, so hurry it up!_"

Lyn winced as the overly cheerful AI's new personality cut off the transmission with a loud static pop. _Is this really the only AI Personality Core Lamb had left_, she wondered. Then the debris cloud cleared and she saw Lucius engaging the last three frigates. Pushing all other thoughts out of her head, Lyn pressed the button to transform and pushed the throttle to the maximum as soon as the transformation as complete.

She grit her teeth as the G-forces generated from the sudden acceleration pushed her back into her seat. As soon as she was a couple seconds away, she pulled the accelerator back and transformed back into mech-mode. In the seven seconds it took for her to transform and activate her Vibro-sword, her momentum had carried her the rest of the distance to the frigate she'd set her sights on.

Raising her hands above her, imitating holding a sword with both of her hands, she slashed forward. Her mech copied her movements exactly and brought the giant Vibro-sword down on the frigates armored hull. The vibrating blade bit into the composite armor and began melting it as the temperature of the blade transferred to the frigate's hull.

Seconds later, the interior compartment was breached and the vacuum of space did the rest. Lyn pulled her arms back and pushed down on her foot pedals with her heels to add some retro rockets to the effort to dislodge her sword. The blade broke free with a jerk, sending Lyn tumbling head over heels three times before her retro rockets evened her flight out.

By now, _The Lorca_ had moved past the small battle field. Lucius' mech was already headed to dock. Lyn looked around the battle field and saw that he'd already dealt with the six other frigates. Each of the hulking wrecks had scorched holes blasted through the hull in several places.

_How did he do it so fast?_

Once she was clear of the frigate remains, she transformed her mech back into flight-mode and made for _The Lorca_. By the time she her feet touched the deck of the hangar, the Gravity Sail had been deployed and they were traveling at ever increasing velocities past the speed of light. The slight jerk of the ship when the sail caught onto the Hyper-space Slipstream left her a little nauseous, but it wasn't anything she hadn't experienced before.

As she pulled off her helmet and started walking toward the lift, she noticed Lucius across the hangar. He was looking over the arm of his mech, which was still in mech mode. Curious she changed course and went to investigate.

"This might be a problem," Lucius mumbled as she approached.

"Is something wrong?" Lyn asked. "If you need anything, I'll do what I can to help."

"Oh, no," Lucius said, turning to face Lyn with a smile. "Nothing's exactly wrong. It's more like the reaction time wasn't what I was expecting. Nothing a few hours of simulator time can't overcome."

"Didn't you have it adjusted before you set out from…" Lyn paused, realizing she had no clue about Lucius beyond his name and he could pilot a Monk type Magic Unit. "I'm sorry, I don't know where you're from. But wouldn't they have tuned it to your preferences once you bought it?"

"I'm afraid not," Lucius said, "because this mech is not mine. It belongs to the Order I serve in. I'm just borrowing it. But there's no need to worry." Lucius turned back to the mech and started climbing back into the cockpit. "I'll just have to get used to slower reaction times and compensate for that."

Lyn shrugged and left for the lift. According to Bee, travel time to the Lycian border would be 10 or so hours. That left her enough time to eat, clean up, and sleep. She wanted as much time to do the latter because she was thoroughly exhausted.

After showering, changing, and eating she was ready for that long sleep. Her desire for rest was only amplified now because custom demanded she see her guests to their resting quarters before she retired. Kent had mercifully dragged Sain and Mark with him into the crew quarters. Lucius walked in with a polite nod and Bob just grinned at her when she wished him a good night.

Lyn was halfway to dreamland before she'd even fallen onto her bed. Sleep took her quickly thereafter. And thus _The Lorca _continued quietly on its path toward Lycian space at seventy light-years per hour.

* * *

**Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space**

Police Chief Wallace, decorated veteran and officer of the law, kept his face blank as the Vice-Governor spoke. As Ludgren went on at length, describing how Wallace had deceived the public, was a traitor to Caelin, and other ridiculous claims, Chief Wallace found it increasingly difficult to maintain his façade. Just before he was incapable of restraining himself any longer, Ludgren finished.

"Out of respect for your long service and the welfare of your family," at this Ludgren paused to stare into Wallace's face, as if to drive home the fact that everything he loved was in the Vice-Governor's hands, "I, Ludgren Blitzkrieger, Vice-Governor of Caelin, do hereby accept your immediate resignation."

Without waiting for any kind of response, Ludgren nodded at two well armed men standing on either side of Chief Wallace. They nodded back and grabbed the Chief's arms. After hauling him bodily out of the office, down the hall, and out the front door of the Blitzkrieger mansion, the two men tossed Wallace onto the front lawn.

Wallace roared and jumped back to his feet, but the moment he turned to attack the two men, he found the barrels of two plasma rifles in his face. Wallace growled, his face red from the effort of holding back. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and walked with all the dignity he still possessed to the non-descript transport waiting for him at the front gate to the grounds.

"I've been ordered to take you home, sir," the female driver said as he got into the back and settled into the plush cushions. He grunted his acknowledgment and the driver took off toward the nearest freeway. "All of your belongings have been taken into custody while you're under investigation, so I wasn't able to save anything for you."

"Wha-Who? Victoria!"

Victoria glanced over her shoulder from the driver's seat and winked at Wallace. "I was wondering when you'd figure it out, Sir."

"But how? They arrested you too, didn't they?" The chief blinked a couple times and rubbed a hand over his baldness. He took a shuddering breath and growled as the words that Ludgren said came back to him. "I can't believe everything that's happening. First the Governor getting sick and now his brother's railroading any good cop into an early retirement, leaving only the most corrupt backstabbers and incompetent nincompoops in charge."

"It's not just the police, sir," Victoria said as she pulled onto the freeway and sped up to match speed with traffic. "The Caelin Militia has been overwhelmed with new recruits of fanatical supporters of Ludgren's anti-Sacean fervor. They can't turn them away because the Vice-Governor has ordered them to take all who volunteer. Sir, Caelin's taking a turn for the worse. And that's not all."

"Let me guess," Wallace said, "there's rumors floating around about rebellion against the Feds." Wallace grimaced, clenched his fist, and pounded his knee. "Damnit! And I sent those two young lads out into Sacea, right into the middle of this hell storm."

"Actually, I've good news and bad news on those two, sir," Victoria said. "First, the good news. Kent managed to get a message back to me through a private channel that he's found Lyndis."

"Excellent," Wallace said, smiling. "If those two can get her back here, and get her in to see her grandfather, maybe all this will solve itself. Maybe that's wishful thinking. You said there was bad news?"

"The bad news is twofold. Detective Truestrike and Divo were both arrested and according to refugee ships just reaching Lycian Space, the planet where they found her has been invaded by pirates from the Taliver Region. I've tried contacting them, to warn them if they escaped about what's happening here, but I've received no response so far."

Wallace sighed and leaned back, suddenly feeling enough weariness for a man twice his age. It was a lot easier to do this kind of work when he was the one out in the field. Waiting to hear one way or the other about a mission while sitting behind a desk was torture. The fact that he'd been stripped of his desk just moments before made him realize that perhaps it really was time for him to retire. The man Ludgren had replaced him with was Captain Eagler, one of the few men he respected enough to have appointed him as successor when if he had really been retiring.

The fact that Ludgren was the one installing Eagler didn't sit well in the Chief's gut, but he knew Eagler. The man was the definition of honor and justice in a police force if ever there was such a person. He suspected that Ludgren thought that Eagler would toe the line, and if so, then the Vice-Governor had another thing coming.

That left him with doing as he was told, as much as it made him want to destroy something with his bare hands. He was a big man, so he'd gotten used to the idea of using his imposing stature to get what he wanted, and when he didn't he, he could use that stature to great effect. But now he was old, and weary. Home and rest sounded good right about now, especially because he could also keep an eye on his family there.

Then he noticed Victoria had turned off on the exit for the Space Port. "Victoria," Wallace said, "why are you taking me to the Space Port? You know I live on the other side of the city."

"I'm well aware of where you lived, but your family is waiting for you at the Space Port," Victoria said. Before the chief could speak again, she said, "Sir, I'm also aware that the Vice-Governor was going to use your family as leverage, and as a precaution, contacted your wife and informed her of the situation. It was her decision to leave Caelin for somespace safer, probably Pherea. She asked that I bring you to the Space Port as soon as possible to make your escape."

Wallace fell silent. He watched several transport craft lifting off and disappearing into the heavens as the vehicle got closer to the main terminal. When Victoria stopped the car at the outside the terminal, Wallace smiled as the face of his blond daughter filled the window, trying to look through the tinted glass.

"Victoria," Wallace said as he prepared to get out. "Thank you. Take care of yourself."

"I should think you need that advice more than I," Victoria said. She gave him a conspiratorial wink as she handed him a duffle bag. "I've packed you all the things you'll need to find them. I know your sense of direction hasn't ever been that great."

Wallace laughed as he took the bag and opened the door. "Daddy!" A blond little girl launched herself into the broad chest of the former police chief. "Daddy! We're going on vacation!"

"Yes, I know," Wallace said as he exited the vehicle and closed the door. Victoria left without a word, weaving through the traffic as she left. Wallace watched her for a few seconds before his wife laid a hand on his arm and motioned toward the terminal. Wallace nodded and said, "Let's go."

He laughed at the squeal of happiness from the bundle of joy in his arms as he and his family entered the terminal. From within the crowd, a man cloaked in black cloth, watched with golden eyes. When Wallace and his family had disappeared into the terminal, the man turned and quickly walked away.

Half an hour later, the man stopped walking in the depths of an unlit back alley deep in the bowels of the city. He pulled a tablet out of his cloak and input a password with several deft movements of his fingers. A long antenna extended from the side and the one eyed face of the Master appeared.

"Master, our investment in Ludgren Blitzkrieger is paying dividends," the black cloaked man said. "Already, he's exiled the chief of police, a man who could have proved a hindrance to the Lycian Revolt we work for and replaced him with a much more easily controlled minion."

"Excellent," the Master murmured. "Very good. Our plans for war take one step closer with this turn of events."

"What is it you require of me, Master?" the black cloaked agent asked. "What move am I to make now?"

"You will remain in Caelin. Continue to feed poison to the Governor until he is dead. Ensure that the Vice-Governor is revered as the savior of Caelin and the cause of the uprising. No one should know of your presence. Remember the final solution."

"Yes, Master," the black cloaked agent said. "My will is your will."

* * *

**Planet Elrond, Kathleet Colony System Phron, Lycian Space**

Finding himself in a dingy bar this side of Ostia, deep in Lycian space, was not how Ike wanted to search. Sitting and waiting for information was most certainly _not_ his forte. But both Lethe, the newly appointed Gallian ambassador to Lycia, and Soren, his tactician and best friend, insisted that he accompany them.

Now all three of them sat at the bar, hunched over their drinks, looking about as commonplace as a triple super nova in a black hole. At least the alcohol was good here. If he didn't even have that comfort, he probably would have gone out of his mind by now.

"Why are we waiting here again?" Ike asked as he threw back the shot glass full of something the Lycian's called Dragon Elixer. Tasted like normal Elixer to him, if anyone was to ask. "I keep forgetting due to how intimate I've become with the counter here."

"Oh shut it, Ike," Lethe snapped. Always one to tactfully speak, she bopped him on the head with one of her hands sneered at him. Sneering was normal for her, especially when surrounded by Humans. "It's bad enough surrounded by these…" the female cat warrior quickly quieted when she caught sight of venomous glare Soren was giving her.

"We don't want to be thrown out of here for insulting our hosts, now would we," Soren said quietly. Frankly, Ike didn't know which was scarier, a black dragon or Soren when he was threatening you with his softest voice. Probably the only thing worse would be if Soren was both, the lack of which made him feel oddly fortunate.

"I… really don't care about that," Lethe said. She shifted her gaze back to her drink and began swishing her tail back and forth. Soren rolled his eyes and made a quick glance over his right shoulder.

"Found him," Soren said quietly. He lifted his drink and took a small sip. Ike knew it was only for appearances, because Soren hated anything that made it harder to concentrate, such as inebriation. "He's sitting in the corner to our right. Looks like he's alone."

Lethe growled. "I told you that was him an hour ago! Why wouldn't you let me go talk to him already?"

"He's been watching us," Soren said, ignoring the irate cat-woman. "It seems he's finally lost his interest in us."

"Good grief." Lethe downed her drink and pushed herself to her feet. "I'm done with this wait and see crap. Hey! You! In the corner!"

Soren groaned into his hands as Lethe marched across the bar toward the corner where a sandy blond haired man in a red traveling cloak, which had seen better days a decade ago, sat nursing a pint of beer. Ike chuckled and stood. He patted Soren on the back in an attempt to comfort him before he followed Lethe.

"I'm afraid I haven't a clue as to what you're talking about miss," the man said. "My name is Mathew. I'm a traveling merchant from Badon. I've never been to Ostia."

"Yeah, right," snapped Lethe, "and I'm the Empress of Begnion. Give me a break, you're the guy. So start talking before I get any angrier and tear this place apart!"

"Hey!" The bartender shouted across the room. Everyone else in the place, if not already silent while watching Lethe's outburst, were deathly silent now. "If anyone's going to tear this place up, it's me," the bartender said as he put down the glass he was holding and lifted a plasma rifle from behind the bar. "If you got a problem, take it outside, got it?"

Lethe, whiskers twitching, grabbed Mathew by the cowl of his ratty cloak and started for the door. Ike followed, eyeing the other patrons as he went. Soren had stayed at the bar with his head firmly planted in his hands.

Outside, Lethe dragged Mathew down the street and into an alley where she casually tossed in into a pile of garbage cans. She was waiting for him to crawl out with her arms crossed and her tail twitching when Ike caught up to her. Mathew coughed a few times as he rolled out of the pile of trash.

"You sure have a way with words, ambassador," Mathew said. Ike, initially moving to help the man to his feet, paused when the shorter man spoke. Mathew coughed a few more times, but if he was waiting for a reaction from Lethe, his efforts were futile. "I can see a woman of your *cough* _talents_ *cough* would greatly benefit Gallia's image in Lycia."

"So you are the one we've been looking for," Ike said. "Why did you pretend back there?"

"Not very subtle, are you?" Mathew said, staring at Lethe. That seemed to hit a mark. She started growling and narrowed her eyes at him. "General Ike, you three stood out and I am undercover. Doing anything other than pretending and getting dragged out to have my ass handed to me would have broken that cover. It took over a week to convince my informant that I was legit, you know. Can't have some bumpkins from Tellius going and ruining it."

Mathew smiled in that carefree way that Ike had seen Rolf smiling before the Mad King's War. The way Mist smiled before their father died. It was most unarming, but didn't seem to work on Lethe, who promptly punched Mathew in the face and sent him sprawling back into the pile of trash.

"Would you please stop that?" Mathew groaned as he slowly dragged himself out of the trash again.

"Sorry," Lethe said, smirking cruelly, "I thought I'd _help_ you keep your cover and _make_ you look the part of an _ass-whooped_ man."

"Haha," Mathew laughed bitterly. "Please don't _help_ me anymore. I don't need it since I've found the target. I assume that's why you're here. Ambassador Ranulf is in Sacea, though I'm not sure how he got there. Last rumors and reports have him investigating this side of the border on the movements and activities of pirates. Apparently he disappeared after following a lead into the Taliver region."

"So we head to the Taliver region," Ike said resolutely. "I'll go tell Soren and we'll leave immediately."

"I'll head back to the Space Port and prep the ships," Lethe said. Both paused when Mathew held up a hand.

"I'm not finished," he said, "though I suspect that the rest should wait until we are back in space. Ranulf is still in Sacea, true, but he's heading back to Lycia as we speak. Finding him will be difficult, and I've got all the contacts to make the search go faster."

Lethe clenched her hands into fists and began to crack her knuckles. Mathew took a step back as she took a step forward and held up his hands. Ike shook his head and said, "I guess you're coming too. I'll go get Soren. Lethe, I leave our friend here in your good hands."

"Oh yes," Lethe said. She licked her large, pointy canines and continued advancing on Mathew, who continued to retreat. "I'm going to enjoy this."

* * *

**Sacean-Lycian Border Crossing Sigma-Delta-Alpha-193 (SDA193), Sacean Side**

Lyn leaned back in the captain's chair on the bridge with her arms crossed and her head tilted to rest on the cushion. _The Lorca _had emerged from Hyper-space half an hour before. The jolt had awoken Lyn from her peaceful slumber after which she simply could not fall asleep again. Then Bee informed her that the Lycian Border was less than an hour away and the sail would need a long time to cycle for use again.

The hum of the bridge computers and the vibration of the standard Hydrogen fuel propulsion had lulled her into a light doze, despite her body's insistence to stay awake. Aside from Bee, everyone else was either still asleep or in the process of waking up. She avoided glancing at the bridge clock, which would remind and, thus, irritate her considering just how early she's woken up. Instead, she took this opportunity to sit and think about everything that had happened.

Foremost on her mind were the two swords that seemed impossible to get away from. It wasn't that she didn't like them, they were good swords, but the feeling they gave her freaked her out a little. It was unnerving to have that feeling that one got from hugging their mother from two inanimate objects. Not to mention the historical weight attached to the two blades. They'd _chosen_ her. It wasn't like she'd picked them up randomly from a junk dealer, where she'd normally gotten her other practice swords. Being chosen by the Katti had many Sacean legends attached to it, and from what Lucius said to her during the escape, people outside of Sacea had legends about them too.

There was the fact she had a grandfather. And he was dying. It was almost like life didn't want her to have any family. She had been the sole survivor of her family. She hadn't really put much thought into looking for her mother's side of the family until all of this started up.

Actually, if she were honest with herself, she was avoiding it. Her sole purpose since the attack had been first to survive, and then to avenge everyone. Going out to look for possible family she didn't know about hadn't even registered as a dream in her mind.

In the end, continuing to be honest with herself, she could no longer avoid her responsibility to what was left of her family and herself. That would be an even greater dishonor than failing to avenge those whom died. No, she had to accept her grandfather and grand-uncle, no matter what, _because_ they were family. And it was her duty to inform them of what happened, because she was the only one that knew.

Thoughts of her grand-uncle brought up another slew of emotions. He was trying to have her killed. Short of that, locked up forever in a jail on Bulgar. What reason could he have for doing this to his family? Did he really have so little appreciation for his brother and niece? Once she got to Caelin, she'd have to find a way to show him the error of his ways. After all, that's just what family did.

"_Master Lyndis!_"

Lyn jumped out of her seat, her hands on the hilts of the two Katti before she could blink an eye. It took several seconds before she realized that it was Bee talking to her. Lamb, bless his soul, had repaired her ship over the few days she'd been on the planet. Thoughts of Lamb brought forth memories of their escape from Bulgar, and how she'd tried to convince Lamb to come with her. But he was too stubborn, saying he was too old and would rather die someplace that had the most meaning in his life, if it came to that. She hoped he was alright.

Thoughts of Lamb aside, she'd underestimated how much he'd get from selling the two pirate mechs, because Lamb had installed some upgrades while she was away. In addition to the refueling of her mech and _The Lorca_, her main viewer screen was a newer model and the console infected by the pirate virus had been replaced wholesale. Now the screens could project holographic pictures instead of flat representations like before. A full generation of hardware better! Already she could feel the itch to get behind the circuit boards to see what she could fiddle around with.

Unfortunately, Bee's AI personality core was replaced as well. She probably hadn't noticed it because she didn't want to after the whole ordeal with the pirate attack. Lamb eventually told her that Bee, despite the reboot, was still corrupted beyond salvation.

Now, Bee was still as capable, still knew the same things, and was still as annoying as before. The catch was that her personality was the exact opposite of the dry, humorless AI she'd grown to love and hate. _Now_, Bee was almost as excitable as a little kid, with a killer sweet tooth, in a candy store with a free pass to eat whatever she wanted for free. She wished the old Bee could have been saved.

"Yes, Bee," she said slowly. Her hopes to calm the excited AI were dashed quickly.

"_Master Lyndis! Detective Kent and Sain are awake and looking for you. I think they may be hungry. Do you think they might be hungry? Should I get the food stores ready for consumption? Maybe I should direct them to the mess lounge. Or do you want to go get them and bring them there. Anything you want to do, Master Lyndis!_"

Lyn winced when Bee finished talking. Correction, she _really _missed the old Bee now. "Thank you Bee, I think I'll talk to them in here. Can you lead them to the bridge? And you don't need to air your thoughts; I know what the food options are, same as you."

"_Oh right, Master Lyndis. I forgot. I'm just really, really nervous, this is my first ship, I really don't want to mess this up. Hehe._"

"Just… stay calm," Lyn said as she straightened out her clothes. "Real calm."

"_Right…. Calm. I can do this._"

She shook her head and settled back into the captain's chair. The two Katti sent a pulse of reassurance that both comforted her and freaked her out. She didn't think that she'd ever get used to that.

"_Master Lyndis!_"

Lyn's whole body jerked, but she forced herself to remain sitting. "Bee, if you don't stop shouting, I'll remove your personality core!"

"_Oh no! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_" Lyn groaned as the AI continued apologizing. She buried her face into her hands and moaned. "_Please forgive me! I'm so sorry!_" By now the AI was sobbing over the speakers. If Lyn wasn't aware that it was a computer, she would have sworn that she was talking to a live person.

"Bee, calm down," she said quietly, using a tone of voice her mother used on her. The fact that her teeth were clenched as she spoke kind of defeated the purpose to her, but it appeared to be working because Bee had stopped crying. "I'm not that mad at you. Just… Just don't yell all the time. You don't need to, okay? This is your home too. Just be calm and quiet."

"_I… I'll try. Thank you Master Lyndis._" Lyn sighed and leaned back into her chair. "_Oh yes, I almost forgot. Mister Lucius is awake, as are Mister Bob and Mister Mark. Do you want me to lead them here too?_"

"Might as well," Lyn said with a shrug. She took a deep breath and forcibly relaxed herself into the chair. "How long until we cross the border and the Gravity Sail is cycled?"

"_If my calculations are correct, then we have fifteen minutes until the borderline and then another hour until the ship has finished cycling,_" Bee reported.

"Good," Lyn said, nodding, "Good."

* * *

"Good morning, beautiful," Sain announced as he waltzed onto the bridge. Lyn arched an eyebrow and then turned to a screen built into the arm of the captain's chair. She read the read out and then rolled her eyes. "Oh make no mistake," Sain said. "You are most beauteous this wonderful morning. Striking and fair, no man could withstand your char-ouch!" Kent pulled his hand back from where he had smacked Sain upside the back of his head. "Kent, why so-"

"Because you're an insufferable cad," Kent said. He looked at Lyn and said, "I apologize for his behavior."

Lyn nodded back, not bothering to read the readout on the arm of her chair. She sat back and watched as the two detectives wandered around the bridge. Kent moved to the different control panels and looked them over, marveling at how such controls were even still used. Sain took the liberty of sitting down behind the navigator consol and pushing a few buttons. When the consol beeped loudly back at him, Sain yelped and jerked his hand back, which made Lyn giggle.

"I'm afraid your ship doesn't like me," Sain said, rubbing his hand.

"It's possible," said Bob as he walked in. Mark and Lucius walked in behind him. "She is a bit touchy when it comes to people touching her controls." Bob stopped next to Lyn and said something to her, to which Lucius added. Lyn nodded with a smile and responded in kind.

Sain sighed. "No such luck for me. I fear I'm losing my touch."

"The only things you lose are morals," Kent said.

Mark snorted. "He needed to have them first to lose them."

"Haha," Sain drawled. "I'll have you know I was the perfect picture of innocence in my youth."

"You? Innocent?" Several sets of eyes turned to Kent who begrudgingly nodded.

"Believe it or not, he was actually the altar boy at his local Elimine Chapel," Kent said. Sain nodded smugly. "Then we joined the Army and he devolved into what he is now. Thank Sergeant Eagler for that."

"As I recall," Lucius said, grabbing everyone's attention, "I didn't have time to properly introduce myself when we met. I believe now would be the appropriate time to do so." Lucius cleared his throat and brought both his hands together, with his robes hung around them, and slid each hand into the other sleeve. "My name is not actually Lucius, but I assume that is what you believed when I told you. Due to the nature of my mission, I can't tell anyone my true name. However, Lucius is the name I've been using since entering into the service of The Order of the Sacred Swords."

"I've never heard of that order," Mark said. "I take that to mean it's a secret order?"

Lucius nodded. "Yes. The Order serves as watchmen of the Katti." He motioned toward the swords. "There are legends regarding those swords reaching far back to before recorded history. Beyond that, there are probably more. Many uncouth and foul men have attempted to steal the Katti, to use it toward their own corrupted ends. It was feared that evil men, drawn by the power of the legendary swords, would put the swords to evil deeds. The Order was formed to watch over and protect the swords until a righteous and good person was chosen. As a servant of the Order, I was sent, as soon as the swords had been pulled from the stone, to guard and evaluate the one chosen."

Lyn, reading the translation from the arm of her chair, spoke up. Lucius listened as she spoke and then smiled sadly. "I'm afraid you are correct, Lady Lyn. There have been those chosen before, as recorded in our secret history, that we've had the duty to get rid of. They would have used the power to rule over the blind masses with an iron fist. One even got so far as to create an empire with them. Fortunately, the last chosen was a righteous man, a good man. At least, that's what my studies have found."

"So you're here to protect Lyn from bad people," Bob said. "Well then you've got your work cut out for you. Not only does Lyn's grand-uncle seem to want her out of the way, but now we've gone and pissed off both the Taliver and whoever those other guys were that kidnapped Lyn before that. And no doubt, there are going to be a bunch of idiots who think that challenging the 'Mighty Katti' for fame and fortune, maybe even to claim the swords from her, is a good idea."

"Way to put it in perspective," Mark said. "Though you seem to have left yourself off that list, _Bob_. Even if you can't remember who you are, there are no doubt other people who remember. They might be out there now, looking for you. And since it will be difficult as it is telling the difference between our enemies and allies, that just makes this little journey to Caelin Space even harder."

"I feel it would be remiss of me to fail to remind you that I am also here to evaluate Lyn," Lucius said.

"Are you saying that if you judge her to not live up to some secret order's standards, you're going to kill her?" Kent asked. It was the question that had immediately sprang into everyone's mind. And everyone now waited for Lucius to answer, even Lyn.

Shrinking slightly under the attention, the monk said, "No, my job is merely to collect information, put it into an understandable form, and then bring a report back to the Council of The Order. They will be the ones to pass judgment on Lyn, not me."

Lyn stood up after a moment, grabbed the two swords, and held them out to Lucius. He took a step back as she spoke, his mouth falling open. The two spoke back and forth fervently in Sacean.

"What's going on?" Mark asked. "It sounds like she's miffed about something."

"She's telling Lucius something to the effect that she doesn't think that she is worthy and he should just take the swords back now," Bob said. "And Lucius is saying that he's not the one to take them. Really, I'm not sure why he even bothered bringing that up. Lyn's not the type to use power recklessly and would gladly give it up if it would make things better."

"_Uh… Warning? Yeah, Warning! There's some bad guys coming this way, and they've been shouting about how they're going to destroy us… or something._"

"What?" Kent shouted. "Bee, can you put them on the main viewer?"

The holographic display came to life, projecting an image into the room of the space surrounding _The Lorca_ in a three dimensional sphere. _The Lorca_ was a small blue ship at the center of the sphere. A yellow line drawn across the space in front of _The Lorca_ represented the border. A blue line extended from _The Lorca_ revealing the plotted path for the ship.

Gathered in a group at the far reaches of the sphere to the starboard side of _The Lorca_ were a bunch of red dots. Spread throughout the sphere were green ships and dots representing the passing civilian, merchant, and other ships. Each of the green ships and dots had small green lines extending from them, indicating their plotted path. The red dots each had a red path plotted for them as well, only the path ended at the center of the sphere, directly upon _The Lorca_.

* * *

"Who could it possibly be now?" Lyn asked.

"_Master Lyndis, a man calling himself Bug just hailed us and is telling us that we should surrender or die._"

"Bug," Lyn said. She frowned in thought. "That sounds like the name of one of those kidnappers from Bulgar."

"Pitiful soul you mercy shown allowed," Bob said. He pounded a fist into his open palm. "Backstabbing leech reveals true mask."

"What he means is that you let him live and now he's come back to finish the job," Lucius said. Then his face darkened. "It would seem we will have to fight our way across the border as well."

"Yes," Lyn said. She stood up and started for the exit from the bridge. Lucius followed on her heels. "Bee, please tell the others that we have to fight and that they should warn the others around us not to get caught up in our fight. We don't want anyone innocent being hurt just because these fools have it in for us."

"_Right away, Master Lyndis._ _Oh, this is so exciting. Another battle in the same day. Yesss!_"

"Your ship is quite eccentric," Lucius said. Both he and Lyn entered the lift that would take them to the hangar. "Perhaps a bit disturbing… from time to time…" Lucius fell silent for a moment and then said, "I appreciate your willingness to accept my presence here. You are under no obligation to do so."

"You did help us out of jail," Lyn said as the doors to the lift closed and the car began to descend. "And you have done nothing to harm me or my friends yet. Even if you are here to do what you said, you've been anything but unhelpful and unwelcome."

"Thank you, Lady Lyn," Lucius said.

Lyn frowned slightly. "Please, don't call me that. I'm not a princess or anything like that. Just call me Lyn." Lucius nodded and smiled a friendly smile. Lyn nodded back and said, "Now let's go teach those bandits a lesson in manners."

* * *

**Sacean-Lycian Border Crossing Sigma-Delta-Alpha-193 (SDA193), Lycian Side**

Even as the varying ships scattered across the border crossing began turning away from the soon to be battlefield, one brave Wagon Class transport unit, with the name _Shadowfax Starblazor_ proudly emblazoned upon its hull in bright red letters, continued on its path toward the Sacean side Hyper-space Slipstream. As it steadily forged ahead, the cargo bay door on the ships belly began to retract. Before the doors had fully pulled apart, two mechs were tossed out, and then the doors began to close again.

One of the mechs, clearly a bulky Magic Class mech painted red and blue, regained its equilibrium fairly quickly. The other mech, a smaller, sleeker, more effeminate looking mech with a N.A.R.S. Staff in one hand, indicating it was a Cleric unit, continued to tumble for quite some time until the Magic Class grabbed a hold of it. Once both were righted, they discovered their position almost directly above _The Lorca_ while the _Shadowfax Starblazor_ had just disappeared into Hyper-space.

Inside of the Magic Class, Erk Flogherty sat at the controls. A very deep grimace was planted firmly on his face as he grumbled about their predicament. A communications window was open on the right side of his canopy, inside of which the animated image of a white clothed, pink haired, woman was simultaneously shouting and giving orders. For his sanity, Erk had muted the line.

"How in God's name did a simple escort mission turn into this craptastic adventure?" Erk grumbled. He barely noticed the stream of light before he bashed into his ward to push her mech out of the way of an incoming Helix Shot. Someone had shot at them!

The image of the woman was now screaming louder, if that were possible. Shuddering, Erk simultaneously activated the audio, grabbed the Cleric's hand, and began a hard burn to get away from the people shooting at them. And then the chaos descended upon his ears.

"OH MY GOD! ERK! SOMEONE SHOT AT US! EEEEEEK!"

"Serra," Erk said calmly, "we need to escape, _now_. And for God's sake, SHUT UP!"

Then he saw them, the dozen or so gang of mechs flying straight for them. Or rather, for the carrier below their position, but it seemed like the attacking mechs didn't care if they were involved in their little fight or not. The Archer Unit continued to let off pot shots at them as they attempted to escape.

"Erk! Save me! Get me out of here! I'm paying you to keep me safe, not get me killed, you idiot!" Erk grit his teeth together when Serra began bashing his mech over its 'head' with her N.A.R.S. Staff. When he'd first set eyes on her, he'd be the first to admit he was taken in by her cute and charming smile, those wide expressive eyes. But as soon as she opened her mouth, illusion of innocence was broken forever.

"God save me from this banshee," Erk said under his breath.

At that point a group of axe wielding Bandits charged in, one broke off from attacking the two mechs that had emerged from the carrier and sent straight him and his ward. Pushing Serra's Cleric mech back, Erk turned around to face the incoming Bandit and pushed the lever in his right hand all the way forward. His mech punched its fist right into the incoming Bandit mech's 'chest'.

This wasn't normally a good strategy, because mechs themselves didn't have enough leverage in space to deal any kind of damage to another mech with mechanical power, which was why they relied on weaponry. So doing minimal to no damage to the Bandit was expected. What Erk was hoping to do was make the man inside drop his guard, which was exactly what happened.

While the man was struck into a stupor, Erk pressed the button on the lever he'd pushed forward. The fist of his mech opened so that its palm was open where a ball of plasma began to form. When the Bandit pilot realized what was going on, he tried to back away, but it was too late.

Erk released the button and the ball of fiery plasma blasted away from the palm, enveloping the bandit in flames. The flaming plasma ate through the armor as if it were paper. In several seconds, nothing was left of the mech but a smoldering wreck.

"Hey!" A new communication's window appeared in front of Erk, this one on the left side of his canopy. The window contained the image of a strikingly beautiful green haired Sacean. Undoubtedly one of the people fighting below him and Serra, defending the carrier from the assault. "Who are you? Why are you fighting these Bandits?"

"We were attacked," Erk said in his best Sacean. He hadn't spoken he language since he learned it, and that was a while ago. "It seemed they mistook us as being with you."

"Erk?" Serra shouted. "Who is that? Is she the one responsible for putting us in danger?"

"If you'll excuse us," Erk said. "We should leave before anything else bad happens."

"Wait," the Sacean girl said, "if you're involved already, why don't you help us defeat them. It would be safer for all of those involved anyway, right?"

"ERK!"

"One moment," Erk said to the Sacean girl. He turned to face Serra and told her what was happening. In a move that surprised him, Serra actually thought about what she wanted to do. He would have had no problem joining up or running away.

"Erk, I order you to help these people," Serra announced. Erk shook his head and turned back to the girl. She was concentrating on the Bandit mech in front of her, dodging and evading it as it attempted to hit her. "Well, Erk," Serra said. "Go help already!"

Erk grimaced and pushed his throttle forward to half speed. That girl, she appeared to be in the Myrmidon, was working with a Monk type Magic Class as back-up to take on the group of five or so axe wielding bandits. He would be of better use taking out that damn long range Archer being guarded by some Vibro-sword wielding Mercenary units.

"Serra, I'm going to deal with that Archer," Erk said. His face twitched as he modulated his words. "I would appreciate it if you could stay here and help the two people down there fighting those Bandits."

"Watch and be amazed as I enter the battlefield," Serra proclaimed. Erk shook his head and went to full speed, taking up an evasive swerving pattern to avoid being blasted out of existence by the Helix Canon on that Archer. As he approached, his mind slowly became quiet as he concentrated on the battle. His fingers instinctually pressed and released the buttons on his controls, creating and releasing balls of flaming plasma at the Mercenary Units that tried to attack him.

One or two Vibro-blades scratched his mech, but nothing a little paint couldn't cover up. He weaved left, spun right, released a plasma ball or two, shot straight up. It was like a dance, and he was a master of footwork. After the four Mercenary units were reduced to burned out husks, all that was left was the Archer.

He approached from the left, continually launching smaller balls of plasma at the Archer. The Archer pilot maneuvered his craft left, then right, then back left, to continue avoiding his attacks while at the same time he would take a shot at him with his Helix Canon. The searingly bright beam of light never hit its target though.

Erk grunted as he grew tired of this game of cat and mouse. Taking a chance, Erk began building up an Elfire sized plasma ball in one hand. It was risky to do this with one arm, let alone a Magic class because of the strain it put on the mechanics in of the Mech. Many other Mage pilots had their own Elfire attacks blasted back into their own mechs, wiping them from existence.

The Archer used the extra time building up an Elfire ball would take to once more shoot at the battle over the carrier. The pilot of the Archer had estimated that he'd have enough time to shoot three times before he'd have to dodge the crazy Mage's attack. He got off two before the half formed Elfire ball blasted through the Archer's canopy. The enemy pilot died before he'd a chance to scream.

"Serves you right for assuming I needed to form a fully sized Elfire," Erk said.

* * *

Lyn dodged the axe attack of Bug as he made an attempt to take her head off. She brought her arms up, bringing her Mech's arms up to block the axe, but the insane power of the Brigand knocked her mech's Vibro-sword from its hands. Cursing, she continued her evasive retreat.

Every time he swung, Lyn made a desperate swerve to the right by mashing the pedals under her feet down with all her strength. Her mech's body groaned every time it was subjected to the torque of changing direction so quickly.

"Damn you, girly!" Bug shouted. "Stop moving! I'll kill you! You die!"

Lyn saw Bug coming up on her left so she forced her mech to take a dive. But it wasn't fast enough and his vibro axe took her mech's arm off. Cursing under her breath, she spotted her Vibro-sword floating de-activated just a short distance away. She cursed again when but appeared on her right. It took all she and her mech had to dodge his next attack.

She swore she saw stars from the inertial pushing her back against the cushioned seat. Once she was clear of Bug again, she continued moving away from him while watching him to see where he'd try to attack her again. She needed to get her sword!

Like a blessing from heaven, Lucius began launching volleys of plasma balls at Bug. Suitably distracted, Lyn immediately aimed her mech toward the de-activated Vibro-sword and pushed the throttle to max. It wasn't as nearly as fast as when in flight mode, but as long as she got there before Bug got to her, then everything was going to be okay.

As she got closer to the weapon she could start to make out more and more details. The handle was there, and then the power plug. She saw the wires that moved up and down the structure that regulated the flow of atoms and energy to form the glowing blade.

She pulled the throttle back so that she didn't overshoot her weapon. With her right hand, she reached out and watched as her mech reached out and grabbed the hilt of the Vibro-sword. The arms power cable reattached and the blade roared to life.

Smiling, ready to take on Bug again, she turned around just in time to see his axe coming straight at her. She froze, realizing she'd been too slow. Instinctually, she brought her right hand up, and thus her reacquired Vibro-sword. Bug's Vibro-axe smashed into the blade and, for a moment, Lyn's hopes grew as she saw her sword hold the weapon back.

Then the blade of the Vibro-sword snapped. Somewhere beyond her dwindling consciousness, she heard someone shout her name. Then all was black.

* * *

**Liberty Trade Station Residential District, Planet Pherae Orbit, Lycian Space**

The room absorbed the pitch black darkness inside of it like a sponge. All light, all sound, all life seemed to have been sucked up into the walls, leaving nothing but the vacuum of space. That is, until a blinking light appeared on the console in front of the young man resting quietly inside of this room.

Groaning, the young man pressed the button and a holographic head appeared above the console. The image cast light across the room and illuminated the young man's face. The holographic head, that of another young man with blue hair and a youthful, but strong face, smirked.

"Did I wake you from your beauty sleep?" asked the caller.

"No," the young man said. He yawned and sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "No, I was awake."

"Yeah, sure," the blue haired young man said with a snort, "and I'm a dancing hippo. Pray tell _why_ you're sleeping when you are _supposed_ to be on your way to meet me in Khathelet?"

"Need I remind you," the young man began, "that I am less than a quarter of the distance you are from Khathelet _and_ you do bear some resemblance to a dancing hippopotamus."

"Heh," the blue haired young man grinned. "Eliwood, the only reason you're not here yet is because you're afraid I'll hand you your ass once more. That means you lose the bet and you owe me a grand."

"Now now, Hector," Eliwood said. "I just happened to be up late fine tuning my masterpiece. You can't very well assume I've capitulated on our bet. I'll be there on time, don't worry. Then we'll see whose ass is going to be served up on a platter."

"Yeah yeah, excuses, excuses." Hector continued grinning as he turned shut down the communication channel. Eliwood stood and stretched his hands out above him with a small whimper as several vertebra popped pleasurably. With a happy grunt, he dropped his arms, rolled his shoulders, and said, "Lights on!"

The computer accepted his command with a loud beep, turning on a series of lights in the large room. Revealed was a mech, but one unlike any seen before. It was in the shape of a human, with a head, arms, torso, and legs. The head had two eyes, an imitation nose, and an open mouth that made it look like it was constantly grimacing.

Its arms were at its side with the hilt of a de-activated Vibro-sword in one hand and a what looked like the torso plating of a General mech held in the other. The chest cavity was splayed open, revealing the cockpit where a simple pad sat. On the mech's back was a large device with a nozzle cone on one end, making it look like the mech look like it had a missile attached to it.

"Sometimes it's good to be me," Eliwood said as he made his way toward the mech with a smile on his face.

* * *

**A/N: Well, there you have it, another darn awful long chapter. It's not my intention to make all these chapters this long. I just start writing and then wham, all these words start appearing on the page. Hopefully you dear readers are not put off by such long chapters, but I'll try to make them shorter in the future.**

**I didn't think it would be so difficult to write with characters that don't necessarily speak the same language. But at the same time, I'm finding it a boon to summarize conversations when some other characters can do so without translating what is said exactly. I did not see that particular benefit coming.**

**And in this chapter, we finally got back to some actual mech battles. Yay! More to come, for sure.**

* * *

**Next Chapter: Old friends meet, and two new allies band together. A**** new training regimen begins****, forming the basis of a Legion****. A prince goes searching for answers.  
**

* * *

**Constructive criticism and any comments you have are appreciated. Thanks for reading!**


	12. The Pieces Are Moving

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_Searching For Home_

* * *

"_Strength comes from admitting weakness._"

* * *

**Hyper-space, Araphen Territory, Lycian Space**

A man stood over her. She couldn't see him clearly, only his silhouette and the fiery orbs of his eyes. Behind him lay the smoldering ruins of a once great city, creatures of some kind running amok over the rubble. The man didn't move. Instead he stared at her with those eyes of fire, like he was focusing a laser on her soul. No matter how hard she tried, she could not look away. A pain grew in her head until she cried out. This only made the man grin, revealing dazzling white teeth.

"_You'll be handing that over to me now, I think,_" the man said, his voice sickeningly sweet. She knew that she didn't want to, that if this man got what she had, the universe would end. She'd die. But she couldn't stop herself from walking forward. "_That's right. Soon, it'll be all over. Just hand it over to me._"

She stretched her hand out, palm up, holding out a medallion of some sort that was covered in blue flames. This fire emblem didn't burn her. Rather, it felt cool, like water running down a stream. Her arm and body trembled as she held the flaming emblem out toward the man. She couldn't stop shaking, not matter how much she tried because no matter what she did, she couldn't stop staring into the man's flaming eyes.

Just as the man reached out to grab the flaming medallion, a low hum penetrated the fear that had fogged her mind. The man grinned at her again, seemingly leering at her despite how he was currently dissolving into blackness. And then all that was left in her mind was the humming.

When Lyn opened her eyes the first time, she grimaced and forced her eyes shut again. The movement was noticed by someone because she started hearing muffled voices and felt something moving against her. She tried to open her eyes again, slowly this time so that she was squinting.

The light that she saw made her head swoon and soon the lights began to dance across her vision. She felt like she was about to retch even as the voices around her got louder. Then, like a wave on a warm sunny beach, something cool and refreshing washed over her body from the soles of her feet to the tip of her head.

The effect of the cool wave was blessedly immediate. The heady rush in her head subsided and the lights in her eyes began to focus. Sounds became more distinct from the fuzzy blurry sounds from before. After several short moments, Lyn was able to see and hear correctly once more. She was in her room.

"Thank goodness," said an effeminate, blond framed face that appeared over her. It took her a moment to recognize Lucius. "You're lucky to be alive. It is to my great shame that I couldn't protect you in time."

"Wh-" Lyn choked and began coughing. A woman with pink hair tied up into twin pigtails, wearing a white nurse's robe with tacky pink highlights sewn on, pushed Lucius out of the way and began speaking to her with a half smile, half frown on her face in Lycian. Lyn frowned and shook her head but the woman continued speaking and poking Lyn a few times with a staff.

Lucius finally pushed the woman back, with the help of a man with long purple hair who grabbed the pink-haired nurse from under both her arms and lifted her, kicking and screaming. Lucius was frowning as he said something to the fighting nurse that made her suddenly calm down. The purple haired man said something that sounded similar to what Lucius said. And then all three of them looked back at Lyn.

"Please don't talk, Lyn" Lucius said. "And please forgive Cleric Serra's manner of behavior. She saved your life when you were exposed to the raw vacuum of space. Though she's healed and repaired what she could, the rest of your body must heal naturally." Lyn nodded. She opened her mouth to speak again, but then closed it. A furious look passed over her face before she breathed in and let it out slowly.

"I am sorry, Lyn," Lucius said. He bowed his head. "I should have been faster. If I were only a bit faster, then none of this would have happened."

Lyn shook her head and carefully laid a hand on top of Lucius'. The pain from that contact was intense. It felt like her skin was suddenly lit on fire. But she endured the pain to give Lucius a comforting smile.

"My… ugh… friend, here, wishes to inform you that she needs her rest," the purple haired man said. Lyn recognized his clipped Sacean accent as the one whom she'd talked to during the battle. She frowned when she realized they were the two mech pilots who'd been caught up in her fight with bug. Why were they still here?

The purple-haired man noticed her confused expression. "My apologies," the man said. "I am the Mage Pilot you contacted earlier. My name is Erk Flogherty. I've been hired to escort my… err… companion, Serra Caradhras. Our original destination was Ostian territory, but we ended up going in the completely wrong direction." Erk squeezed his lips together out of irritation and said, "It is my understanding that you're going back the other way, so if it wouldn't be much trouble, we'd like to accompany you to Caelin. We will hold up our end and fight when fighting is called for."

Lyn furrowed her brow as she thought, but eventually nodded. Taking that as a signal to leave, the three left Lyn's room. They stopped just outside of the door, where Mark, Bob, and the Detectives waited.

Glancing back at Lyn's closed door, Bob said, "She's lucky you got to her in time, Serra. It's a miracle we found a Cleric all the way out here."

Serra gasped, affronted. "I'll have you know that I am not just _any_ Cleric, but the highest rated Cleric pilot in all Lycia! There isn't anything that my most beauteous self cannot accomplish, and with style to boot. I'm the best Cleric and the best healer. The whole package." Serra grinned and beamed at Bob, who promptly ignored her.

"My sweet Serra," Sain cooed. Serra turned to Sain and batted her eyes at him. "You are most gratefully welcomed."

"Yes, thank you," Kent said. "But now that we seem to have barely escaped with our skins, I think we should consider a few things. First, the goings will be much tougher from here on out because Ludgren can send the Caelin Militia against us now that we're in Lycia. Second, I've discussed this with Mark and we've both concluded that while Lyn is capable of defending herself, she's far from the greatest fighter out there. In fact, I believe she's barely an amateur, at best."

"Come now," Sain reproached. "She's not that bad. Or have you forgotten the missile maneuver?"

"No," Mark said. "Kent is right. Lyn's abilities leave a lot wanting. It would be impossible to convince her to leave the fighting to professionals such as Lucius, Erk, and Serra."

"That would affront her Sacean honor," Bob said. "While she puts down her own abilities as a Sacean, she is very much steeped in their traditions. Perhaps the only reason she's survived since turning ten years old is because of those nomadic traditions. If push came to shove, there is no doubt in my mind she'd fight to the bitter end to hold fast to her freedom and self-reliance, no matter what anyone says or even if it's in her best interest."

"That leaves no choice but for one of us to train her," Erk said, speaking for the first time.

"Our skills," Lucius said, indicating himself, Erk, and Serra, "center around the unique abilities of our mech designs. However, there are certain standards that we can teach her that should improve her basic fighting skills."

"Of course," Serra spoke up. "I can teach our most wonderful host better evasion skills. And Erk will teach her as well." Erk grunted when she spoke for him. "But what of the rest of you? Does anyone else have any piloting skills?"

"Sain and I have our army basics that were drilled into us before we entered the Police Force," Kent said. "We were assigned to a Cavalier Unit. I got the piloting half, and Sain the arms half."

"I can already imagine showing the young lady how to ride that swo-" Bob calmly reached up and whapped Bob upside the head. "-ouch!"

"Thank you Bob," Kent said.

"No problem."

"I have no skill in mech piloting," Mark said. "My forte is tactics and strategy. I suppose that since we have a week and a half before we reach the other side of Araphen territory that I could impart a few of my tactics to her in between you bunch. Nothing too advanced or crazy. Basic stuff."

"I…" Bob stopped. His mouth twisted and he said, "I can't remember if I know anything about piloting a mech."

"Don't worry about it," Lucius said. "You can go through the training with Lyn. Maybe it will jog your memory and it will give Lyn a companion with which to train with."

"Ooooh, that's a great idea!" Serra said. A wide, happy smile appeared on her face as she made goo-goo eyes at Bob. "And whenever you get hurt, I'll be there to patch you up."

"There is one more thing," Kent said. "I was looking over the inventory that Bee generated for the ship and we don't have much fuel left for the mechs. If we come out of Hyperspace at the Araphen border, and Ludgren is waiting for us, we'll be sitting ducks in less than a couple minutes."

"I know of a refueling platform in Araphen," Erk said. "It will add about half a day's journey to our trip, but I doubt anyone's going to stake out all the small refueling platforms just to find one ship. If we changed directions now, we'd make it there in maybe five days."

* * *

**Lower Nevassa City Slums, Planet Nevassa, Daein Space**

A young man, reaching for the upper edge of his teenage years, ducked into an alley as a patrolling Soldier mech flew by overhead. Its searchlight swerved about in the night, but picked up nothing of the young man or anyone else for that matter. Avoiding the Occupational Force's patrols is old hand to the people who live in this part of the city.

The young man's green hair, a lighter shade of forest in the sun, appeared almost midnight green at this time, as he swept it back under the hood of his cloak that was whipped up by the mech's passing. Even if he weren't as fast or as well versed in agile movement, he still could have avoided all the patrols, as most of the drunks, downtrodden, and weary souls in Nevassa did now that the war was over and Daein was under occupation by the multinational force that had defeated their king, Ashnard.

Pulling his cloak tighter close around him, the young man exited the alley and continued on his way. He had places to go, people to find, and there wasn't anyone that was going to stop him now. He'd picked up the trail again, after so many years of separation. He'd finally found her.

Stopping at an intersection, the young man looked up and down the crossing street, wary of the patrols or any vagrant stupid enough to try robbing him. He found it rather pathetic that the once proud people of Daein had been reduced to this, but it wasn't like he had any right to criticize them since he had been in the very force that had fought Mad King Ashnard.

Seeing no one, the young man dashed across the intersection and ducked into another alley. This one had several bins full of trash built up in front of it and several passed out men and women, drunk or otherwise inebriated out of their minds. However, there was one person, a woman, sitting with her back against the wall further back in the alley, hidden by the piles of trash and a heavily weathered cloak.

"I once knew a girl," the young man started. "The people called her the Silver-haired Maiden, among many other names…"

The young man came to stand in front of this person with both hands on his waist. The person whom the young man stood in front of lifted a hand to the hood over her head and pulled it back, revealing long silver locks of hair and golden brown eyes. She smiled up at the young man.

"…but I prefer to call her friend," the young man finished. "It's been a long time, Micaiah."

Standing, Micaiah nodded and said, "Yes it has, Sothe."

The two continued to stare at each other for over a minute before they both started laughing and hugged. When they pulled apart, Sothe said, "Why did you go away, all that time ago? Was it because of something I did?"

"No," Micaiah said. She grinned and shook her head. "No it was nothing you did. But let's not talk of that now."

Sothe nodded and looked out of the alley when a patrol passed by. "We should probably get somewhere safe before we start catching up. Do you have any place to go?"

"Yes," Micaiah said. "It's not far from here. Oh Sothe, I thought I'd never see you again. It makes me so happy that you're back."

"Me too," Sothe said as they exited the alley, Micaiah leading. He eyed the dark corners of the street, the heavily shadowed buildings standing guard over the road. "Me too."

As the two hurried down the dark street, a bell began ringing in the distance. It rang three times to indicate the hour of the night, though none but the nocturnal and night creatures heard it. Out of the shadows that Sothe had glanced at walked Glass, wearing a large black cloak. He watched the two star-crossed friends for several more moments before he vanished back into the shadows.

* * *

**Hyper-space, Araphen Territory, Lycian Space**

Lyn tapped the controls for her washer off and stepped out of the stall. Her whole body ached from the day's workout. Whey the others had approached her and told her their plan, part of her had rejoiced. She was going to get some proper instruction on piloting. The rest of her groaned in dismay. She still remembered her Uncle's 'lessons' on swordplay and basic strategy. It was the worst thing her six year old self had endured.

Time hadn't made much of a difference. Mark's lessons on tactics and strategies blew right over her head. He'd had to dumb it down four times, re-explaining it over and over, with Bee translating. That made her feel like an idiot for not understanding what he called a 'simple' and 'basic' strategy that all pilots understood. His lesson took place in the morning, and then Kent and Sain picked up on them shortly after.

She had to give him credit, Kent was a strict, but fair, instructor. Sain was a lazy bum with more talent than he knew what to do with. Together, Sain showed off the formations she was supposed to take, both in the cockpit and out, while Kent corrected her. They seemed to coordinate with Mark, because they started using the same tactics and scenarios he taught her earlier that day.

Then came Lucius, Erk, and Serra's lesson. They were helping her learn and memorize how to operate her mech as efficiently as possible. Before, she'd hop in and just hope she didn't have to use those buttons on the side, or flip that switch she had a hazy memory of her father saying never to touch. Now, she knew what that switch was actually for (the emergency ejection switch) and what most of the buttons were for.

Serra was, beyond her expectations, actually helpful when it came time to memorize operation instructions. It seemed that the strategy she used to rise to the top was to associate a word in her mind that reminded her of the operation she wanted to execute. The fact that almost all of Serra's memory words were the names of the different men she's dated, taken advantage of, and dumped, disturbed Lyn far more than she'd ever willingly admit.

Then came the simulator runs, where they would all hop in and have little death matches with each other. The goal of these little games, of course, was to improve Lyn's skills. That meant everyone ganged up on her and ground her into space dust. She got some lucky hits in between different people telling her where she was making mistakes, but she was handed her own butt by the end, usually by Lucius, Erk, and surprisingly Sain. Sain was surprisingly good at piloting a soldier mech, even if it was in a simulation.

Simulators done, Lyn broke for lunch, which was always short because she would need to head off to physical combat training with Lucius and Bob. Bob was going through all this training with her, which she hadn't expected to be as much of a lifeline to her sanity as it turned out to be. But when it came time to do some physical combat training, he was the one helping her.

She attributed Bob's unnatural agility and strength to the fact that he was a Laguz. No human could bend and twist that quickly and punch at the same time. During one interesting pause in the training session, Sain attempted to perform one of the back flipping kicks that Bob had done moments before to send her flying across the practice mat. Serra ended up treating his injury moments later while Kent stood over him with that disgruntled look on his face.

It was a rather cute disgruntled look, though she'd never tell him that. She didn't want to invoke Sain's wrath on the poor man. And she didn't want to insult Bob, who seemed to be kind of protective of her as well, not that he wasn't also rather cute.

Serra had attempted to ferret out her views on the subject of cuteness on the third day. That day Bob and Lucius were sparring. Of course, they got so hot that they pulled their shirts off. Everyone was watching, but as Serra's heated whispers of admiration for their well bulging muscles and broad shoulders implied, their reasons for watching were vastly different. She never broke under Serra's scrutiny though, easier still because she was reading everything the woman said through the translator. All she had to do to throw off suspicion was act confused.

After the training was dinner, prepared mostly by Kent because everyone else didn't know how or anything they produced was tantamount to poison. Sain, being the perfect example of the latter, much to everyone's surprise. She'd had suspicions that Serra's would be the worst, but she was proven wrong. Sain's first, and last, attempt at cooking an egg resulted in a small fire breaking out on the ship as well as uninvited trips to the bathrooms once the food had been 'sampled'.

After that, Sain was banned from cooking. Forever.

Kent's was the only passable food that everyone agreed they could eat on a daily basis, much to the man's chagrin. Apparently he despised his natural ability to cook, which was surprising to her because of how good he was at it. She thought that it was perhaps from her living on her own for so long that she could appreciate a good cook while he probably ate out at famous Caelin Restaurants where they had professional chefs.

Her own abilities at cooking were minimal because she was too afraid of messing the food up or making it taste bad. It had happened before when she was younger. Ever since ruining her food four times in a row, when she was eleven years old, she'd stopped trying to make it taste better and settled for the bland basics.

After dinner, aching and dirty, she'd take a shower and fall asleep into her bed. Now, as she stood, reflecting over the last five days of this routine, she was beginning to feel something that she'd thought to never feel again. With the way everyone was pitching in and working together, getting along, joking about small stuff, it was almost like they'd formed a bond of some kind. Like a family.

That thought scared her stiff whenever she thought about it so she suppressed any of those emotions when they bubbled to the surface. Yet every time she giggled at one of Sain's inane jokes, or watched Serra's flirtatiousness battle with Kent's honorable politeness, it became harder and harder to not think of these people as friends. Friends, who were growing closer by the hour.

While she lay in her bed, dozing from the day's work, she shuddered as her mind ran through the reasons why she was terrified. Every time she found herself warming up to these people a part of her core froze up like a block of deep space ice. For each of their faces, she saw a face that belonged to her family. She really, really didn't want to see the same thing happen to her new friends and the possibility that the same thing could happen meant…

Without finishing that thought, Lyn resolved to work even harder the next day to become strong enough to defend her friends when the time came. No one in her new family would die. She'd make sure they survived, even if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

**Uncle Buck's Fuel and Refreshments, Araphen territory, Lycian Space**

As the retro-thrusters fell quiet, Florina let out a long held breath and hung her head low. Outside of her canopy was the hangar of this refueling platform where many men and women who owned private space shuttles or mechs walked about. Their crafts, Florina's Huey, were parked in long rows next to the refueling pumps.

"I'm sorry Huey," Florina bemoaned. "It's all my fault that we were fired. Now we have to find a new job. Oh what am I going to do?"

A sharp tap on her canopy brought her back to the present. "Eep!" she squeeled as she jumped and jerked her body to look at the man outside of her ship. The man wore a mechanic's uniform with the number fifty-five printed on it.

"Look lady," the man said, his voice muffled by the thick canopy, "I don't got all day. You gonna order some fuel or what?"

"I… uh… I… W-w-w-want f-f-f-fuel p-p-p-p-pleassssse," she said, forcing the last word out. Without waiting for a reply she put her head down and didn't lift it to look at the man again.

Unsure what to do, fifty-five moved away to start the refueling process and said, "Uh… yeah, sure. Okay."

Once the man had walked away, Florina shuddered and tapped a button on the side of her console. The canopy immediately rose up with a mechanical whirring and a soft pop as the internal air pressure met the lower external one. Taking deep breaths to calm he nerves, she unstrapped herself from her seat, typed in the lockdown code for Huey's computer, and grabbed her Class I Vibro-lance.

Across from the refueling stations was a convenience market where several of Uncle Buck's patrons milled about as they waited for their crafts to finish refueling. With short, furtive movements, Florina shoved the inactive Vibro-lance into the holster on her leg and made a dash for the store front. Her heart raced as she bolted inside and ran down one of the many aisles of food and other travel comforts until she found a secluded spot near the back of the store.

_There are so many men_, she realized. _Why did I even come in here? And now that I am, how am I going to get out?_

"Attention Buck Shoppers," a pleasant and happy voice announced over the speaker system. It was clearly pre-recorded. "Our sensors indicate that a large pirate force is inbound. If all of our customers could please evacuate in an orderly fashion, casualties and needless death, can be avoided. If you should suffer bodily harm in the ensuing encounter, please contact our corporate headquarters to claim your very own cake mixing bowl. Have a good day."

Some people in the store screamed and others bolted out the door. One young man, with brown hair, grimaced as his eyes grew dark. He marched out the doors slowly, but with purpose in his step.

_Pirates_! Florina began shaking. _I have to get out of here. But that means I'll have to run back the way I came! I barely made it in here without fainting._ Florina, still shaking, squared her shoulders and nodded to herself. "I'll just have to make a run for it," she said.

Taking a deep breath, Florina steeled her nerves and made a dash for it. Most of the store was empty now, clearing a path for her to escape without the need to dodge anyone, much to Florina's relief. In the hangar outside the store, many of the ships parked at the refueling stations were lifting off and blasting out through the force-field barrier holding the air in. They would all be hooking up to external Hyper-drive assemblies floating just outside the refueling platform to escape.

Florina raced across the open space and jumped into the open cockpit of Huey. She leaned out the other side to check and make sure that he (she'd determined that Huey was a male ship) had finished being refueled and found that Fifty-five had run off without detaching the fuel hose.

With a desperate cry, Florina hopped out of the cockpit and scrambled to the hose. By the time she'd turned off the pump, detached the locking clamps holding the hose to Huey's fuel port, and clamped the cover onto the tank, only one or two others had yet to the platform. Leaping back into Huey, Florina began an expedited activation sequence. By the time the canopy had come back down and formed an airtight seal, she'd already buckled in and had activated half of the systems.

Minutes later, she was rising from the hangar deck and angling Huey to escape. Then she saw and her heart dropped into her gut. A cold pall came over her as she could now count the number of pirate mechs now outside the station, all of them enganged in destroying the escaping ships.

_I'll never make it out of here alive _she thought. Breathing in sharp gasps, Florina let her hand rest on the throttle, but let Huey maintain floating just above the floor while she watched with growing terror the massacre taking place outside.

A communication window popped open on her canopy. She screamed and jerked back in her seat. The man, the brown haired one who she'd watched march out of the store, jerked back as well. Then he said something in Lycian that she, having only learned the very basics, barely made out.

_I think he wants me to do something, _she reasoned. Using her very broken and bad Lycian, she told him that she was weaponless and didn't understand Lycian very well. Nodding the man looked down and then she received a text message from him.

Huey translated, 'I'm in the Archer behind you. If you work with me, we can save this platform and maybe the rest of the people trying to escape. You distract them, and I'll blow them away. Yes?"

_He wants me to be the decoy… _ Florina looked back at the carnage taking place outside of the station. As afraid as she was, what those pirates were doing was even worse. Nodding, she looked at the brown haired man and, in heavy Illian accented Lycian, said, "Yes."

* * *

**High Orbit over Planet Anri, Altean territory, Akaneian Space**

Est sighed happily as she and her sisters approached the entry vector for landing on the planet. The Whitewings of Medon, as she and her sisters were known, had been loaned to Altea by the newly elected queen of Medon, Minerva. At this moment though, Est's mind was on one thing, and one thing only. A handsome young officer of the Altean space navy named Abel.

A communication window popped up on the canopy of her Pegasus unit, revealing her older sister Catria. "Siiiissssss." Est sighed again. Catria rolled her eyes and pushed a strand f her blue hair out of her face. "Oh come now, Est, it's only been a couple months now. You're worse than a love struck puppy."

"I cannot help it, Catria," Est said. "I just can't."

"Pay attention, you two," their eldest sister, Palla, said, her face appearing in another communication window on their canopies. "We're about to enter the atmosphere. I wouldn't want to explain to any prospective boyfriends, who I might say I don't approve of, that their prospective girlfriend has burned to ashes upon re-entry."

Est frowned, wrinkling her nose. "Yes _mom_. You're such a worry wart."

Catria giggled at the face Est was making and the scowl sported by their eldest sister. As the three of them guided their Pegasus units past the outer atmosphere and toward the landing pad by the Altean Palace, the three sisters continued to banter back and forth. Once they touched down on the landing pad and were walking into the palace, they were met by the prince himself, Marth of Altea.

"Good morning ladies."

"Good morning your Majesty," Palla said. She and her sisters bowed. "Her Majesty, Queen Minerva of Medon, sends her best regards and hopes for a quick resolution."

Marth nodded back and pointed back the way they'd come. He started walking and explaining what the mission is. "I appreciate her lending you three for my mission. I didn't want to take any of my retainers because that would tip off the people we're investigating. You three, on the other hand, are unknown quantities since Minerva likes to send you out on random missions, where you'll be away for weeks at a time."

"Her Majesty has explained most of everything to us already," Palla said. "But I am curious, won't your absence tip the group off just as well as if you'd taken retainers?"

"I've already taken care of that," Marth said as he hopped into a modified Mercenary mech. The three sisters climbed into their own respective mechs and soon they were all under way. Marth opened a three way secure channel to Whitewings as they lifted off and made for space. "I apologize for not giving you a moments rest after your trip here, but this mission is of utmost importance. The group we're going to be going after could very well tip the scales of power in this region with their acts of sedition and terrorism. The only information we have on them is their name. Black Fang."

Est tuned out the prince as he continued to fill them in. She was rather depressed now, having not had a chance to see Abel. Heaving a long sigh, she looked out of her canopy as they left the atmosphere and made for the external Hyper-space assemblies.

_When will I get to see him next?_ she wondered.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is more filler than not. Nevertheless, I managed to fit in some plot movement. Yay.**

**I'm beginning to introduce, here, characters and places that are going to become more important as the story goes on. I'm also trying my hand at characters who are actually attracted to each other. Shipping is not my forte, so please, if you got tips or suggestions to make these things go smoother, I'm all ears.**

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Legion grows as sinister forces rally against them.**

* * *

**Please review. Thanks for reading.**


	13. Battle at Uncle Buck's

Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems

_Searching For Home_

* * *

"_Draw close to the truth; Draw close to danger._"

* * *

**Planet Shou'da, Bern Expansion, Elibean Space**

The Master stood tall, his feet planted firmly on a platform before the construction going on before him in the hollow center of his asteroid. The thing being constructed was massive in scope, made evident by the skeletal supports put together already taking up almost the entire space of the asteroid. What the object being constructed was could not be determined just by looking at it, for it currently held the shape of a half sphere, but more and more pieces of it were being brought in by the many, many gold-eyed men working in the asteroid.

"This progress is good," the Master said. "Very good work, Limstella."

"I thank you for your praise Master," said a very androgynous person, clothed unlike the rest of the Black Fang, not in a cloak but in a fine vest of lavender with a deep green shirt underneath, charcoal grey slacks, and finely tailored boots. The only similarity between this person and the others were the pair of golden eyes that the person had. "It took the combined knowledge of all eight General's Memoirs to piece together where this object drifted to since the Scouring War. Now that it has been found, the great Hyper-space Cannon will require approximately six months to construct from the collected wreckage."

"Excellent," crowed the Master. "Now that you're work is complete, I have a new assignment for you, my most powerful Morph. I've received reports that two agents of the Imperium have entered Lycia and have raided one of our information nodes. I have no doubt that they will make themselves a nuisance. Their last known position had them heading to join with the new Katti. You will intercept them and get rid of them."

"Yes Master," Limstella said. "What of the Katti? Shall I deal with her as well?"

"Leave the Katti alone for now," the Master said. "She is too weak and distracted to become a threat and shows no signs of the potential to become one either. Her fate will be thrown in with the other pathetic mortals who cling to this life like space barnacles desperately cling to the hull of a cruiser."

"It will be done, Master." Limstella turned and walked to a second platform. The Master watched with his maddening eye the construction of the Hyper-space Cannon taking place before him. His deep, deranged chuckling echoed throughout the internal space of the asteroid.

* * *

**Liberty Trade Station Space Port, Planet Pherae Orbit, Lycian Space**

Wallace kissed his daughter on her forehead and then his wife a bit more deeply. "I'll contact you when I've found them and let you know when everything is settled," he said.

Evelyn, his wife, watched him with concern etched in the wrinkles on her forehead. "I know I can't stop you. Just remember that you have a family waiting for you to come back. You wouldn't want to leave us alone."

Wallace smiled broadly at his wife and daughter. "Of course I'll be coming back. The only thing that could stop me is a black hole." And then turning more serious, he said, "Stay strong, Eve."

Evelyn nodded. He gave his family one last hug before he turned around and started wading into the throng of people that moved about the arrivals area of the space port terminal. He pulled a sheet of paper from the bag Victoria had given him and read it over once more before he made a bee line for the tram platform.

While he waited for the tram to arrive, he checked through his bag once more and pulled out an ID card with his picture on it. He smirked at the forged card saying that he was an employee of the spaceport. _If I ever get back, that woman's getting a raise and a bonus_.

When the tram arrived, Wallace stepped on and rode the car across the space terminal to the last stop. On this side of the terminal was the access point to the shipping docks and the military hangar. A grin formed on his face as Wallace stepped from the tram and made for the military hangar.

* * *

**Uncle Buck's Fuel and Refreshments, Araphen territory, Lycian Space**

_The Lorca_ dropped out of Hyper-space amidst the chaos of the attack on the fleeing civilians. Lyn, alone on the bridge, immediately jumped from the captain's seat when Bee brought the scene up on the main projector. She labeled each of the pirate vessels red and civilians green. _The Lorca_, once again in the center, was blue.

"Pirate attack!" Lyn shouted. She counted at least fifteen ships, though it appeared that some of them had been reduced to rubble. The majority of the ships were converging on the refueling station some clicks away, while only a couple of pirate mechs remained with the civilians hips to chase them down one by one. "Why aren't the civilians fleeing? What's wrong with them?"

"_I think the bad guys disabled their Hyper-space modules through battle or something," _Bee said. "_I've called the others up there. What are you going to do?_"

"I've got to go help them," Lyn said. Her hands involuntarily grabbed the hilts of the Katti as a strange sense of righteous fury filled her. "These men think that they can come in and take whatever they want, from whoever they want, without a care in the world. And I…" Images of her family's dead faces flashed through her mind. "I must prevent anyone else from suffering as I did. I'm going out there and rescuing as many people as I can. And I'm going to wipe that scum from the galaxy."

"_Yeah! You go, Master!_" Lyn ignored Bee's hyperactive response as she turned and headed for the door. "_I should probably warn you though… there's only enough fuel for you to fight and fly for fifteen minutes._"

_I'll just have to make those fifteen minutes count,_ Lyn thought with determination. She walked at first, then ran until she reached the elevator that would take her to the hangar. When she got to the hangar, changed into her flight suit, she found Serra suited up as well and climbing into her mech, but Lyn frowned when she couldn't find Lucius or Erk, and their mechs were sitting to one side, no where near getting ready to power up.

"Where Lucius and Erk?" Lyn asked Serra in the Lycian she'd learned over the past week. Serra fell into the cockpit seat and pointed at the elevator. Lyn turned and saw Lucius stepping off as the doors opened, but he was without his suit.

"Before you ask," Lucius said, "this wasn't my idea. Mark suggested that if we run into trouble, Erk and I transfer our fuel to your mech so that you'll be able to fight for a longer period of time. We'll stay behind and man the point defense turrets here on _The Lorca_."

"I… but," Lyn took a deep breath as images of her last battle's end came to mind. "What if something like last time happens? I don't think I can do this by myself."

"Don't worry so much," Lucius said. He smiled and placed a strong, but comforting hand on her shoulder. "You've improved a lot in the last few days. I'd say you're more than capable of dealing with these goons on your own. And you won't be alone. You've got Serra out there to watch your back, though she can't fight for herself so you'll have to watch out for her safety, just like in the simulations. Plus, Sain and Kent will be piloting _The Lorca_ into the battle to cover your back."

"Alright," Lyn said after a pregnant pause. "I'll do my best. Wish me luck."

"If it will make you feel better, good luck," Lucius said. "Now get going, before those curs rob anymore innocents."

"Right." Lyn nodded resolutely, gathered up her courage, and climbed into her mech. As soon as she and Serra had exited _The Lorca_, she brought up her tactical display and took another look at it. There were three Pirate class mechs loitering around the field of disabled or destroyed civilian ships and then there were the rest of the pirates attacking the refueling platform, a group which included an Archer class in their ranks of Pirate and Brigand mechs.

Serra opened a com-window to her and started speaking. Lyn waited for the translation to come up from below the Serra's image. 'After you take out those pirates, I'll see to patching up any of the civilians, ipso presto!' Lyn nodded her agreement and Serra's window shut. Glancing down at the status display for her mech, Lyn saw that the fuel gauge said she had approximately forty minutes of flight mode time, which was probably fifteen minutes of actual battle time once fully transformed.

Filing that tidbit of info away, Lyn set her sights on the nearest Pirate mech and pushed her throttle forward to seventy-five percent. A part of her noticed that she was much more sure of her movements now than the last time she was in a real battle. Fighting in a simulation taught her the skills, that is true, but a part of her couldn't take the simulated battle as anything but fake. Right here, right now, it was real, and nothing she did could deny that truth. This would be where she saw the fruits of her training.

"Alright," Lyn said to herself. The three Pirates were coming into range and had noticed her. They activated their large red Vibro-axes and were now flying toward her, Serra, and _The Lorca_ pulling up the rear. Taking a deep breath, Lyn said, "Let's do this!"

Punching the large red transform button, Lyn straightened her back as the seat turned vertical. She tested the pedals under her feet as the battle HUD came to life on her canopy in front of her. She then grabbed her imaginary sword with her gloved hands and her mech, having fully transformed, copied her actions. In that position, she waited as the closest two pirate mechs came in for the attack.

The first pirate flew at her full speed, with its gleaming red bladed axe held high. Just as the pirate got close enough to attack, Lyn lashed out with her sword. The green blade of her sword activated moments before striking the Pirate through the center of its body. Cleaved in half, Lyn reached out with her free hand and grabbed the upper portion of the Pirate mech and spun around.

This was a trick she'd picked up from her simulated fights with Bob. That Cat Laguz picked up battling in space as if he were a fish in water. She assumed it was somehow connected to memories he'd forgotten, because his movements were too fluid to have been instinct. In one such training sim, he'd used a Vibro-spear to snap Sain and Kent's Cavalier mech in half, and then tossed one of the halves at her, turning the wreckage into a weapon of mass.

The second Pirate clearly didn't expect her to use this same tactic because he flew straight into the upper half of his ally's mech at full speed. The collision caused a small explosion as one of the mech's reactors went critical. Lyn paused as her mind took in what had just happened, apparently not believing it actually happened.

Then, bursting through the still glowing gas cloud, the third Pirate attacked. Lyn barely had time to register someone shouting her name as her mind focused on dodging with a press of the left foot pedal. The Pirate's axe missed her by several feet, but the rest of the Pirate mech sideswiped her and sent her into an uncontrolled spin.

As much as she hated being put into this position, and it had happened several times in the simulator, it didn't confuse or panic her as much as it did before. In fact, she remembered losing her lunch one day because Sain and Bob thought it would be a good idea to sit there and make her simulated cockpit spin around and around at faster and faster speeds with her artificial gravity projector getting in on the act by simulating the spinning movement. They went to sleep with bruises that night, but it did help her adjust to rapid spins in zero gravity.

Managing to right herself with a few deft flicks of the foot pedals, Lyn turns her mech to face the third Pirate just in time to watch five bolt of plasma smash it to smithereens. Focusing on her HUD, she found that the shot came from _The Lorca_ as it closed in on her position. That was the last of the Pirates this close and Serra was already heading out to the stranded civilians to spread her Nano-machines on them for repairs.

"Lyn, good job." The image of Lucius popped up on her canopy. She kept her eyes on it and pressed the transform button, putting her back into Flight-mode. Checking the fuel monitor, she found that there was now twenty-nine minutes left, which she roughly translated into ten minutes more of combat.

"Lucius, I'm going to head over to the platform," Lyn said. She turned the nose of her mech toward the battle still taking place around it and pushed forward on the throttle. "I want you to stay here and guard Serra in case any pirates try to make an attack."

"Lyn, I don't think that's a good idea. Neither Erk or I can back you up should you need help and _The Lorca_ isn't fast enough to keep up with you. You should wait for Serra to finish her work and then we'll all head out together."

"Someone's fighting all of the pirates at the platform, otherwise they'd have seized control of it already." Lyn watched her tactical display as the distance between her blue dot and _The Lorca_ grew while the distance between her and the refueling platform shrank. "I can't just leave someone brave enough to fight all of the pirates alone like that. I'll be careful. So hurry up and finish out here and catch up."

"Lyn…" Lucius sighed. "I suppose there's nothing I can do to stop you. Very well. Stay sharp. We'll be there as soon as Serra's finished."

Lucius nodded his head and the com-window closed. Lyn focused on the flashes of light as the Pirate mechs in front of her, she counted nine left now, grew larger. They flew erratically, reminiscent of a cloud of insects buzzing around a glowing lantern.

Lyn watched the Pirates as she got closer, waiting for one of them to notice her approach and attack her. Then she saw a long blast of light cut through the cloud of mechs and consume one of the Pirate mechs. When it disappeared, all that was left was a heap of glowing slag.

As she banked away from where the blast had struck, Lyn muttered, "That came from the platform. Someone's using it as a shield." It seemed that two of the Pirates noticed her presence and started toward her. Taking a deep breath, Lyn hit the transform button and prepared to attack. The first Pirate attacked similar to the one from before, with its axe held high and flying toward her at full speed. Lyn activated her sword and flew toward the Pirate herself.

She counted herself lucky that these men used the much slower Pirate mechs, which allowed her to easily strike first. Swinging her arms up, she brought her Vibro-sword up and caught the Pirate mech just below the mid-section. Pushing the pedals forward, Lyn used her own thrusters to add to her attack, the Vibro-sword eventually cut through the leg armor and pushed out the back.

Continuing forward, Lyn feinted right and then swung around left horizontally to attack the next Pirate that came at her. The Pirate swung straight at her and because it was too slow on the uptake, ended up getting a very large hole in the cockpit. Lyn de-activated her sword and made for the next Pirate who was swooping around, slashing like crazy.

"Six left," she said. Focusing on her target, she idly wondered what he was attacking. "It doesn't matter. Just take him out and move on."

As soon as Lyn got in range, the Pirate noticed her and attempted to cut her in half with his axe. Lyn pushed on the right foot pedal to dodge, and then lashed out while activating her sword at the same time. Her sword hit a join in one of the legs and cut straight through it. Without waiting for the Pirate to recover, Lyn used the momentum left from her first attack to spin around and attack again. This time she dug a hole into the canopy of the cockpit, ending the pilot.

"Five now." Lyn glanced down at the fuel timer and cursed under her breath. "Five minutes left, I'll never get them all." Lyn powered down her sword and put that thought aside to focus on the other red dots spread across her HUD. "I don't have to defeat them all, I just have to hold them off until the others get here."

Lyn found the nearest Pirate and headed for him. He'd apparently noticed her too because he was headed straight to her. She watched, with a cold sweat breaking out across her body, as her mech and the Pirate closed the distance with increasing speed. In the back of her mind, it dawned on her that this was the longest she'd ever lasted in a battle, simulated or not. This was uncharted territory for her.

Focusing on the Pirate, she prepared to attack when something slammed into her from the side. Red lights and warning alarms blared as systems across her mech began to fail. Before her HUD went dark, Lyn saw her mistake. Another Pirate had closed in from the side while she focused heavily on the one in front or her.

"_Incoming transmission._"

A blank window with a line though it opened on the canopy in front of her. Her mech was, for all intents and purposes, dead in space right now. She had enough emergency air to last her maybe ten minutes, but after that, she'd have to either be rescued or would die. The line began moving, indicating the voice pattern of the one speaking.

"Stupid Sacean trash." It was the pilot of the Pirate she'd focused too much on, Lyn realized. She grin her teeth and growled as the pirate continued gloating. "You think you were so smooth, coming in and trying to be the hero. Well, it looks like you're out of luck, little man. Once I'm done raiding this dump, I'm going to drag your dead body out of your mech and use your skull as a goblet to drink my swag from! Hahahahahahahaha-AHHH!"

BOOM

The Pirate mech floating in front of her exploded as a beam of light shot into and through it. The one that had rammed he exploded when several shots of something smashed into and through it. At a loss for words, Lyn watched slack-jawed as the light faded and revealed a lump of molten slag, quickly cooling in the deep freeze of raw vacuum.

As if sensing her growing desire for an answer for this inexplicable save from without, a com-window opened on her canopy showing a young man with brown hair and piercing eyes. He started speaking in Lycian, some of which she understood, but the majority of it was still gibberish to her ears. This became evident to the young man when he saw her confused expression.

"I… uhh… not good speak… Lycian," Lyn said. Recognition lit the young man's face and he looked down for a second. Then a text message appeared below his image.

'My name is Wil. Thank you for your help in the fight. It looked like you needed some help with last couple pirate. Are you okay?'

"I fine," Lyn said. She waved her hand placating. "No power. Wait friends here."

'My friend could tow you to the refueling platform to wait until your friends arrive. At the least, you won't run out of life support down there.'

Lyn nodded, smiling. Despite how it appeared moments ago, it looked like events had turned out for the best in the end. She watched in wonder as a Pegasus appeared and shot out a magnetic towing cable to the hull of her mech. With the artificial gravity projector offline, she was jerked with the rest of the mech when the Pegasus accelerated.

Lyn was placed in the artificial gravity of the platform hangar by the Pegasus, whom she learned was piloted by an Illian named Florina. The Archer pilot, Wil, had come over to make sure she was alright as well, and had left once he was certain she was doing fine. After that, she began to repair her mech as best she could while waiting for the others to arrive.

She'd managed to get life support working again, but the fuel tank had been ruptured somewhere and none was left in the tank. Even if she tried to add fuel, it would probably leak out again. Everything else was in good order though, so that led Lyn to the conclusion that the impact from the pirate had knocked loose part of the fuel system, which she made a mental note to reinforce once back on board _The Lorca_.

Twenty minutes later, _The Lorca_ arrived at _Uncle Buck's _Refueling Platform with the salvaged civilian ships. _The Lorca_, too large to fit inside the platform's hangar, docked with one of the platform's docking ports while the civilians all landed. As they got out of their ships, they all made their way over to the three mech pilots that had saved them, particularly thanking Lyn for stopping the pirate who was killing them indiscriminately.

Lyn, unable to understand even half of what the people were saying, tried to remain as quiet as she could while smiling and nodding to the people praising her. Florina attempted to hide from the adoring crowd and somehow found her way to standing behind Lyn while letting her do all the smiling and nodding. It struck her as odd that someone that young would be this far away from Illia if they were afraid of everyone out here.

After everyone had finished thanking the brave mech pilots that had saved them, the civilians all began to make arrangements to leave, either calling friends or towing services. Several of them tried to ask Lyn for a ride in _The Lorca_, but she politely declined as best she could. Once most of them were gone, or off on their own, Lyn felt Florina relax behind her.

Lyn turned and found the exhausted lavender haired girl slumped over. _Yes,_ Lyn thought, _very odd._ Unsure what the girl would understand, she attempted her limited Lycian first. After all, what would a Illian be doing in Lycia if she didn't know the language?

"You be fine soon?"

Florina took a deep breath and then looked up at Lyn. "Yes," Florina said with her thick Illian accent. "I will be fine soon. My Lycian not so good though. You speak Illian?"

Lyn's expression fell a little and she shook her head. Florina sighed, straightened up, and said, "Thank you for help. I look for job. You need help?"

"I no understand 'job'."

"She's asking for work, Lyn." Lyn gasped and spun around while Florina shrieked and hid behind her again. Lucius walked up to her and smiled. "I'm happy you survived that in one piece. Next time though, please try to take back up. You nearly died."

"But you saw what the scum were doing! It was only a matter of time until-"

"I know, I know," Lucius said. He waved her down with both hands, as one does to calm an over excited child. "But remember, it's my duty to guard you, and that gets hard when my ward runs off to fight with pirates. Now, this young lady was the one running interference while the Archer pilot over there shot the Pirates down. It was quite a good, if risky, strategy that required a lot of skill. I suggest you hire her."

"How?" Lyn glanced over her shoulder at the shuddering and cowering girl behind her. "For one thing, she seems to be afraid of men and for another, I don't have any money."

A smile tugged at Lucius' lips as he said, "I don't think money is going to be a problem."

Confused, Lyn tilted her head a little to the side. "What?"

* * *

**Sacean-Lycian Border Crossing Sigma-Delta-Alpha-193 (SDA193), Lycian Side**

Ships traveling through the border of any space state or nation, must drop out of Hyper-space in order to pass through. This was enforced by a wall of gravity projectors strung along the borders of the space in question. This forced slow down also allowed for the passive scanning for contraband and other illegal activities, and allowed law enforcement the opportunity to catch them.

With a burst of light, the Carrier class _Caineghis' Roar_ appeared in real-space at the border with Sacea. Soren, standing with the others on the bridge, needed only one glance to realize what had taken place and promptly _knew_ that they were too late. With a grumbling grimace, he slid into one of the seats on the bridge.

"Well would you look at that," Mathew said. He studied the carnage still being cleaned up with a slack, bored expression that belied the acute accuracy his eyes indicated he was actually applying to the task. "Someone made a mess. Four guesses who it was. The first three don't count."

"Looks like a bandit raid to me," Ike said. He stood just behind the seat Soren had fallen into. "You don't think Ranulf is out there, do you?"

"General Ranulf is no push over," Lethe snapped from the Captain's chair. "This is his mess, no doubt. Those human meat sacks didn't stand a chance." She looked to be on the verge of jumping to her feet to challenge Ike to a fight. Her tail twitched incessantly back and forth as she waited for the challenge to materialize. Ike chose to ignore her.

"From here they will have pushed into Araphen space, correct?" Soren queried. He looked up at Mathew, who stood on the other side of the bridge, behind one of the crewmen working on the bridge that day. Mathew quickly glanced away from the Gallian crewmember's activity and nodded.

"Indeed they will. As I said before, their target is Caelin."

"Hmm…" Soren narrowed his eyes as he studied the damaged mechs being cleaned up. "With that sort of damage, and the battle as a whole, it would stand to reason that they're low on fuel. If your sources are to be trusted, then they'll likely refuel in Araphen in case they're confronted at the border."

Lethe groaned and flung herself back into the Captain's chair. Her head smacked into the metal brace on the back of the chair, eliciting a yelp from the Cat Laguz woman. "Let's hurry and head for the nearest refueling platform then," she gasped through grit teeth. She clutched her head as the navigation officer input the commands.

"This trip has turned out to be longer than I thought it would be," Ike muttered. He glanced at Lethe, who was cursing at her own stupidity for hitting her head.

"Hopefully it won't last much longer," Soren added, grimacing at Lethe as she continued to mutter and curse. "I feel a headache coming on."

Mathew, meanwhile, continued to idly wander about, innocently oblivious to the untrained eye.

* * *

**Planet Caelin, Capital of Caelin State, Lycian Space**

As amusing as it was to watch all the goody-two-shoes police and soldiers wilt under his power, Ludgren found it just wasn't enough. He felt it in his bones. He needed more; needed to be King of Lycia.

However, his contact with the Magician, as he'd come to call his mysterious cloaked man, had waned of late. For the past week, nothing had come to him from the man, and no new information about him had popped up. It was as if the man, and his mysterious master, were figments of his imagination.

The only reason he knew they were still real was because of the poison that kept turning up in his desk drawer. He'd never put it there and no one had access to his office unless he was already in it. Thoughts of the poison drew Ludgren's mind to the target, his brother. The feeble man was being more stubborn than he'd ever been in his entire life. It was like part of his body just refused to die.

That's when he got an idea. He'd keep his brother sick, and bedridden, and dilute the poison. That way, if this little rebellion ever got found out, he could pin it all on his brother, who would 'drink poison' to commit suicide. If the man couldn't get out of his way fast enough, it didn't mean he couldn't serve a useful purpose.

Ludgren smiled as he sat down behind his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen. True, these were ancient instruments of communication, but for what he was proposing, such precautions had to be taken. Electronic messages were being monitored after all. Writing slowly, he gracefully laid out his proposal to other governors to meet with him for discussions on secession from the Lycian Union.

_When I'm finally King,_ thought the conniving villain, _as a final lesson, I'll teach that dying man how to actually die, and cut his throat myself._

* * *

**A/N: Well now, it seems we have some revelations about the bad guy's ultimate goals… or do we. What could one possible want with a Hyper-space Cannon? _That_ I won't reveal until the time is right, hehehehe.**

**My intention with Wallace is to turn him into a kind of Old Guard Badass, as it were. He's past his prime, true, but he makes up for it with a lifetime of hard fought experience surviving brutally harsh battles. Too bad he's got no sense of direction.**

**Florina's actually one of my favorite FE7 characters, alongside Lyn and several others. I hope I got her personality right mixed in with some 'lost in translation'. Hm… I think I should use that toward some jokes…**

**Poor Soren has got a headache. He probably feels like he's babysitting a bunch of teenagers.**

**Oh yeah, as far as language differences go, Lycian = English, Sacean = Navajo (or rather, just what Lyn speaks. The other Saceans speak variations of other Native American languages), Illian = Russian, Gallian = (approximately) Swahili. I'll mention the other languages as I go along. Almost everyone in Akaneia speaks the rough equivalent of German. The only exception is the space of Doluna, where there be dragons who speak… well, Dragon. I don't plan on ever attempting to type in those languages, because I'll only butcher them. I'll stick to my American.**

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**Next Chapter: A fateful meeting… or is it? Ambushes await around every corner. Will Lyn and friends have what it takes to make it through to the dawn?**

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**Please review. Thanks for reading.**


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